Anthony Gonzalez, 56, known to family and friends as Gonzo, was a union carpenter and a husband, father and grandfather who had fallen on hard times. Those who knew him remembered his character and said he was a good person who shouldn’t have left so soon. His wife Janet was left traumatized by his sudden and violent death.

In the early morning of June 20, 2022, Gonzalez was inside a structure at a homeless encampment in Seattle’s Delridge neighborhood at 26th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Juneau Street when an assailant forced entry and shot him in the face with a shotgun, killing him at the scene. His son James discovered the body later that day. Police identified Jaycee Thompson, then 43, as the man who killed Gonzalez during what was described as a crime spree. Thompson’s record included nine prior felony convictions and 25 prior arrests; he had been arrested a few months earlier for felony motor vehicle theft and released on bail after the Northwest Community Bail Fund paid his bail, a fact that drew outrage from Gonzalez’s family and others in the community.