Joss' husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, shared a lengthy statement on Facebook over his loss, claiming that his husband died in a homophobic attack.

My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former home,' he began a lengthy message.

When we returned to the site to check our mail we discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view. This caused both of us severe emotional distress. We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw.'

While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired,' he continued.

Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.'