Man arrested in connection with murder of bishop in Los Angeles

A person was arrested this Monday in connection with the murder of Catholic Bishop David O'Connell, found dead this Saturday with a shot to the chest in a Los Angeles house a few blocks from a church, according to the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper local NBC News station, Fox News and other news outlets.

The arrest occurred early Monday in a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department special forces operation, multiple sources confirmed to NBC News station.

The identity of the detainee was not revealed by these sources.

O'Connell, 69, was one of the auxiliary bishops of this Californian archdiocese, the largest in the country, by appointment of Pope Francis in 2015. He was originally from Ireland and had been a priest in California for almost half a century.

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His body was found shot in the upper torso in a room of a house in the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue, in the community of Hacienda Heights, around 1:00 p.m. (West Coast time). Michael Modica of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department explained on Sunday.

"He was a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant, and had a passion for creating a community in which the sanctity of every human life was honored and protected," Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez.

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O'Connell chaired the Southern California Interdiocesan Migration Task Force and the Subcommittee on the Human Development Campaign for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

O'Connell, on November 17, 2021 in Baltimore.

Julio Cortez / AP

Authorities have not said whether the bishop was the target of the shooting or if his religion was a factor in his death, but they did confirm that they were investigating the event as a murder.

O'Connell worked in South Los Angeles for years and focused on gang intervention, Angelus News reported.

He tried to broker peace between residents and law enforcement after the violent riot of 1992, after a jury acquitted four white Los Angeles police officers for the beating of Rodney King.

Nearly two decades later, O'Connell rallied the San Gabriel Valley community to rebuild a church facility following an arson attack and, in recent years, has led Catholic efforts in the region to work with immigrant children and families from Central America. .

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Masses were dedicated to O'Connell on Sunday in churches throughout the region.

Neighbors and parishioners left flowers and candles and said the rosary next to police tape in Hacienda Heights.

Some 50 people prayed and sang at a vigil Sunday afternoon near a part of the neighborhood surrounded by crime scene tape.

"I've been crying for two days, every time I think about him," said Ramona Torres, who has been a lector at her church for more than 30 years and often read at O'Connell masses.

Gabriela Gil met O'Connell when she was pregnant with her youngest child, after a mass at a Catholic school.

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"I asked if I could pray over my belly," she told The Associated Press, as she and her family visited the crime scene.

A mother of seven children, Gil spoke with O'Connell about her children and her faith over the years.

"I have never felt more understood by anyone in this world," she said, adding that she initially thought she had died of a heart attack or some medical emergency.

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The news of his death stunned her: Last year, O'Connell presided over her son's confirmation.

"I saw him in the parking lot before mass started and he was taking a little walk, saying his rosary," he said.

The Irish diocese of Cork and Ross, where O'Connell was born, was shocked by the priest's death.

Bishop Fintan Gavin said in a statement that O'Connell had "always kept in touch with his family and friends in Cork" through frequent visits to Ireland.

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Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the bishop a "friend of many years" and said he was part of a prayer group with O'Connell during the coronavirus pandemic.

"This city has lost one of its most beautiful angels," Garcetti said on Twitter on Sunday.

Recently, violence has impacted religious leaders in Los Angeles.

Last week, two Jewish men were shot and wounded by a man authorities say had attacked them because of his faith.

The suspect, Jaime Tran, has been charged with federal hate crimes.

With information from