Authorities have not said whether the bishop was targeted in the shooting or if his religion was a factor in the killing.
A Catholic bishop in Southern California was shot and killed Saturday just blocks from a church, a slaying of a longtime priest hailed as a «peacemaker» that’s stunned the Los Angeles religious community, authorities said.
Detectives are investigating the death of Bishop David O’Connell as a homicide, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities have not said whether the bishop was targeted in the shooting or if his religion was a factor in the killing. The shooter — or shooters — remain at large.
«It’s very early in the investigation,» said LASD Homicide Bureau Detective Michael Modica, according to CBS Los Angeles. «We got a lot more steps we have to take to make more determination to what’s happening.»
O’Connell, 69, had been a priest for 45 years and was a native of Ireland, according to Angelus News, the archdiocese’s news outlet. Pope Francis had named him one of several auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — the largest in the country — in 2015.
O’Connell worked in South Los Angeles for years and focused on gang intervention, Angelus News reported. He later sought to broker peace between residents and law enforcement following the violent 1992 uprising after a jury acquitted four white LA police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a Black man.
Nearly two decades later, O’Connell brought the San Gabriel Valley community together to rebuild a mission there after an arson attack and in recent years spearheaded Catholic efforts in the region to work with immigrant children and families from Central America.
O’Connell was found in Hacienda Heights around 1 p.
