A suspect has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a Catholic bishop in his Los Angeles home.
The man in custody has not yet been identified by law enforcement, but the arrest is tied to the death of Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles David O’Connell, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the Washington Examiner. O’Connell, 69, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the chest at his home in Hacienda Heights over the weekend.
The arrest of the murder suspect is set to be announced by the sheriff’s office on Monday afternoon.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said the alleged murder occurred early Saturday afternoon. O’Connell was a fixture of the Los Angeles Catholic community and served in the area for more than four decades.
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“It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness,” said Archbishop Jose Gomez during Sunday mass.
“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 and the Diocese of Los Angeles said in a statement. “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.”
Homicide Bureau Detective Michael Modica said on Sunday the investigation is still ongoing.
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“It’s very early in the investigation,” Modica said. “We got a lot more steps we have to take to make more determination to what’s happening.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
