Officials and reports have confirmed that Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell died because of homicide after the police ruled out the suicide case.
O’Connell, aged 69, was found dead in his Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles, California residence on Saturday with a chest gunshot wound.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office expressed their condolences on Facebook (via Fox News) and remembered the bishop as a “guiding light.”
Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connel dies at 69. This is a representation photo. (Photo by Michel Grolet via Pixabay)
Los Angeles Bishop Dies Due to Homicide
CBS News, citing county sheriffs, said a Los Angeles bishop died by a gunshot on Saturday in Hacienda Heights.
The incident occurred around 1 p.m. on Janlu Avenue’s 1500 block, and when deputies arrived, they discovered a man with a gunshot wound to his chest. Unfortunately, he was declared dead at the scene.
When the deputies inspected the site for evidence, they said that O’Connell was shot in his house and that his death was “suspicious.”
Hence, The Guardian said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department ruled out suicide in the death Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell and instead considered it a homicide.
Officials remained mum on whether the bishop was a target. The sheriff’s office declined to disclose how or where his corpse was discovered. The culprit or suspects have not been arrested.
Detectives at (323) 890-5500 are looking for anybody with more details on the shooting.
Who is O’Connell?
O’Connell was an Irishman who had served as a priest for 45 years, according to the archdiocese publication Angelus News. In 2015, Pope Francis appointed him as one of many auxiliary bishops of the largest American diocese, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
According to Angelus News, O’Connell spent several years working in South Los Angeles and specialized in gang intervention. After a jury found four white police officers not guilty of assaulting a Black man named Rodney King in 1992, there was unrest, and he attempted to mediate peace between the community and the police. O’Connell rallied the San Gabriel Valley to restore a mission following an arson assault over two decades later.
Glendy Perez, who claimed to have met the Los Angeles bishop during anti-abortion protests in the neighborhood, told The Los Angeles Times that O’Connell was a “soft-spoken and loving” man.
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