The L.A. County sheriff’s office says the husband of a housekeeper who worked for Bishop David O’Connell has been arrested in the priest’s shooting death.
A man arrested Monday in the weekend killing of a Catholic bishop that shocked Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities is the husband of the victim’s housekeeper and had done work at his home, authorities said.
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, 69, was fatally shot Saturday in the bedroom of his home in Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated community about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
A SWAT team arrested Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, at their home in Torrance, about 35 miles southwest of Hacienda Heights, Luna said.
The sheriff said detectives first linked Medina to the crime after finding surveillance video that showed his SUV in the driveway of O’Connell’s home at the time of the killing.
A caller told authorities that Medina, 65, was acting irrationally and had made comments about O’Connell “owing him money,” Luna said, adding that a motive in the killing remains under investigation.
He said detectives found no evidence of forced entry at the archdiocese-owned home and that Medina’s wife was cooperating with detectives. Detectives recovered weapons at Medina’s home and ballistic tests are pending, Luna said.
