… Peacemaker’ bishop shot and killed in Los Angeles
…. Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell was a “man of deep prayer,” an official said
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.
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, attends a news conference at the Fall General Assembly meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
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.
Los Angeles Auxilary Bishop David O’Connell, a popular priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for many years known for his work ministering to immigrants, the poor, and victims of gun violence in South LA, was shot and killed Saturday, authorities said.
The shooting happened around 1 p.m. inside a home in the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles County, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, television station KABC reported.
Deputies found O’Connell, 69, suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso, KCAL News reported. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Authorities are investigating the shooting as a suspicious death but no futher details were available late Saturday.
Gomez called O’Connell “a man of deep prayer who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother.”
“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,” the archbishop said
“He was also a good friend, and I will miss him greatly,” Gomez, added. He asked for prayers for the bishop and his family in Ireland.
Earlier in the day, Archbishop José Gomez released a statement announcing that O’Connell, an Irish native who had worked in the Los Angeles area for the past 45 years, had died unexpectedly.
“I am very sad this afternoon to report that our beloved Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell has passed away unexpectedly,” Gomez said in the statement, Angelus News reported.
“It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness,” the archbishop said.
Born in County Cork, Ireland in 1953, O’Connell studied for the priesthood at All Hallows College in Dublin and was ordained to serve in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1979, according to Angelus News. After ordination, he served as associate pastor in several parishes and as pastor at St. Frances X. Cabrini, Ascension, St. Eugene and St. Michael’s parishes – all in South L.A. Pope Francis named O’Connell a bishop in 2015.
“May Our Lady of Guadalupe wrap him in the mantle of her love, and may the angels lead him into paradise, and may he rest in peace,” the archbishop said.
