Posted on 02/20/2023 6:57:07 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Los Angeles homicide detectives are investigating the shooting death of a Catholic bishop in his home as parishioners mourn the man described as "a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant."
Auxiliary Bishop David O'Connell was found dead in his home in the Hacienda Heights neighborhood Saturday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.
Deputies found O'Connell after responding to an emergency call shortly before 1 p.m., Deputy Lizette Falcon told CNN.
"It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness," Archbishop of Los Angeles José H Gomez said in a statement announcing O'Connell's death.
"As a priest and later a bishop here in Los Angeles for forty-five years, Bishop Dave was a man of deep prayer who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother," Gomez said. "He was a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant, and he had a passion for building a community where the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honored and protected."
As police investigate the deadly shooting, the Los Angeles Catholic community is reflecting on his impact.
"I'm brokenhearted. I've been crying for the last few days knowing that he's no longer here to share all of his inspiration and his prayers and everything with us," parishioner Ramona Torres said.
"I'm very hurt -- very hurt by his passing because he's one of the most lovable persons I've met," another parishioner, Gabriela Gil, said.
Gomez said he was "deeply disturbed" to learn O'Connell's death was being investigated as a homicide.
"He was ... a good friend, and I will miss him greatly. I know we all will. Please join me in praying for Bishop Dave and for his family in Ireland," Gomez said.
"Bishop O'Connell was a guiding light for so many, and his legacy will continue to live on," the sheriff's department said on Twitter. "We are working diligently to seek those responsible for his death."
O'Connell was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and ordained to serve in the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1979, according to Angelus, a news platform of the archdiocese.
While working as an associate pastor, O'Connell ministered to communities dealing with gang violence and poverty in southern Los Angeles.
He worked to restore trust between residents and law enforcement in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Angelus said.
Working with immigrants was also a top priority for O'Connell and he served as chairman of the interdiocesan Southern California immigration Task Force, which helped coordinate the local church's response to the recent influx of migrants from Central America, Angelus said.
The police think this is a homicide. I’m waiting for CNN and the rest of the MSM to start running the wild, unsubstantiated claims that it must have been some Leftwing lunatic. /sarc
The specific details of this crime will never be released to the public.
We have a local Priest who was murdered about 30 years ago. Same, here. Still ‘unsolved.’
Fr. Alfred Kunz. Yes, still unsolved.
Maybe it was one of the kids he diddled returning to diddle him...with a 9 mil.
“diddled”
There’s a lot of money to be made by pursuing abuse claims, so not likely.
Either someone associated w/the gangs he was “interfering” with (by simply working w/gang kids) or an abortion advocate.
Hacienda Heights is just over the hill from here. It is a rather upscale neighborhood with a large Chinese and Korean population.
Imagine for a millisecond if this religious person were muslim and how the media would cover that.
La Mirada boy here.
Good points.
“Maybe it was one of the kids he diddled returning to diddle him...with a 9 mil.”
I looked him up. He doesn’t seem like an abuser but he does seem to have a reputation as one who covers up or remains silent in the knowledge of abuse .
Plug his name into
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/
Lots of hits.
‘Jamie Got a Gun’ Some people are leaning towards your theory. :(
They allowed some brief info. but not much. Note this alert on Google: Admitting to censorship indirectly??
Google.
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One line about the Bishop:
“O’Connell worked in South Los Angeles for years and focused on gang intervention, Angelus News reported. He later sought to broker peace between residents and law enforcement following the violent 1992 uprising after a jury acquitted four white LA police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a black man.”
Peacemakers are in danger and that’s not surprising.
Bishop accountability org is leftist garbage ran by leftist Catholic haters to smear any priest for big time money.
ARREST MADE!
They just arrested the Bishop’s HOUSEKEEPER’S Husband for the murder. The man had previously worked for the Bishop. Caught him on security footage outside the home.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man arrested Monday in the weekend killing of a Catholic bishop that shocked Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities is the husband of the victim’s housekeeper and had done work at his home, authorities said.
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, 69, was fatally shot Saturday in the bedroom of his home in Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated community about 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
A SWAT team arrested Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, at their home in Torrance, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Hacienda Heights, Luna said.
The sheriff said detectives first linked Medina to the crime after finding surveillance video that showed his SUV in the driveway of O’Connell’s home at the time of the killing.
A caller told authorities that Medina, 65, was acting irrationally and had made comments about O’Connell “owing him money,” Luna said, adding that a motive in the killing remains under investigation.
Thanks.
Doesn’t “the housekeeper’s husband” sound like a Matlock or Murder, She Wrote suspect?
May the Bishop rest in peace.
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