A Roman Catholic bishop in Southern California was shot and killed Saturday just blocks from a church, a slaying of a longtime priest hailed as a “peacemaker” that’s stunned the Los Angeles religious community, authorities said.
Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell, 69, a native of Ireland who spent most of his four decades as a priest ministering in LA’s inner city, was shot and killed on Feb. 18 in his Hacienda Heights home, a neighborhood east of LA.
His death is being investigated as a homicide, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles early Feb. 19.
“We learned early this morning from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office that they have determined that the death of Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell yesterday was a homicide,” Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said in a statement released Feb. 19. “We are deeply disturbed and saddened by this news.”
In a Feb. 19 news release, the Sheriff’s Department said that deputies had responded to a medical emergency on the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue in Hacienda Heights and found the bishop suffering from a gunshot wound.
According to an Angelus News report:
Archbishop José H. Gomez gave the update to parishioners gathered for Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Feb. 19, one day after the Irish-born bishop was found dead at his residence in Hacienda Heights. A statement was also released to news media Sunday morning.
“We continue to pray for Bishop Dave, and for his family in Ireland, and we pray for law enforcement officials as they continue their investigation into this terrible crime,” he added.
O’Connell was ordained in Los Angeles in 1979, the diocesan news site Angelus News reported. Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop in 2015.
Many of O’Connell’s congregants across parishes in the Los Angeles area were from marginalized and immigrant communities, according to Angelus News. Over the course of four decades as a priest and bishop, he worked to curb violence and to care for immigrants.
“I’ve been part of the people’s lives, and been there during the suffering of the young people who have lost their lives so many times, but I haven’t had any problems,” O’Connell told Angelus News in 2015. “I do believe what’s really important is for us to be out in the neighborhoods, to be out with the people.”
He said it had “been the great joy of my life to be the pastor of these people, especially the ones who are suffering or in need or facing difficulty.”
Government and church officials have expressed their condolences and shared memories.
Watch the latest of this news report below:
Sources: TheBeltwayReport, KTLA5/Youtube, ABC News, Angelus News