An arrest has been made in connection with the fatal shooting of a beloved Catholic bishop in Los Angeles, where authorities are scheduled to release more information later today, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The arrest comes less than 48 hours after Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell was found dead at his home in Hacienda Heights on Saturday afternoon with a single gunshot wound to his torso.
O’Connell was reportedly found not breathing in his bed, and police determined there were no signs of forced entry, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Investigators are said to have identified a suspect early and arrived at the suspect’s Torrance residence around midnight Monday, where an apparent stand-off ensued until around 9 a.m. when police took the suspect into custody.
Images posted to social media show members of a SWAT team and tactical vehicles at the home.
Citing neighbors, the Daily Mail identified the suspect as Carlos Medina, whose wife reportedly worked for O’Connell for a decade.
“I’m just shocked and overwhelmed,” Marty Hernandez, a neighbor who lives near the suspect, told the Los Angeles Daily News. “You wouldn’t know that you have somebody that lives next to your house that would do such a thing.”
Hernandez said Medina appeared to be in his fifties and would often stay up late at night.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez mourned O’Connell’s death in a written statement, referring to the 69-year-old as a “good friend.”
“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. 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,” Gomez said.
“He was also a good friend, and I will miss him greatly. I know we all will. Please join me in praying for Bishop Dave and for his family in Ireland. 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.”
Officials are scheduled to give a news conference at 3 p.m. Pacific/6 p.m. Eastern.
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[Featured image: Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, right, from the San Gabriel Pastoral Region, is revered by an unidentified pilgrim, left, after a special “Mass in Recognition of All Immigrants” at the Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles Sunday, June 24, 2018. O’Connell, a Roman Catholic bishop in Southern California was shot and killed Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, just blocks from a church, a slaying that’s stunned the Los Angeles religious community, authorities said. Detectives are investigating the death of Bishop O’Connell as a homicide, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)]
