Catholic Bishop David O’Connell Shot Dead in His Home in Los Angeles – Authorities Labeled His Death a Murder

 

Los Angeles Catholic Biship David O’Connell was shot and killed on Saturday.

Police responded to his home at the Hacienda Heights at 1 PM on Saturday and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bishop O’Connell spent more than four decades serving Los Angeles’ inner city has been shot dead at the age of 69.

Police are investigating O’Connell’s death as a murder. 

Angeles News reported:

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.

ABC News reported:

A long-serving Catholic bishop known as a “peacemaker” was shot and killed in Los Angeles on Saturday, officials said.

Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who had been a priest and then a bishop during his 45 years with the church, died “unexpectedly,” José H. Gomez, the archbishop of Los Angeles, said in a statement.

He’d been known as a “man of deep prayer,” Gomez said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it responded at about 1 p.m. to the Hacienda Heights neighborhood, where an adult male was pronounced dead at the scene. Los Angeles ABC station KABC confirmed with police that O’Connell had been shot and killed.