A man who was shot to death Saturday afternoon in Hacienda Heights was identified in broadcast reports as an Auxiliary Bishop in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
KCAL News, ABC7 and Fox 11 reported the shooting victim was 69-year-old Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell.
The shooting occurred just before 1 p.m. Saturday in the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue, Los Robles Avenue and Turnbull Canyon Road, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. No suspect description was released.
In a statement on lacatholics.org, Archbishop José H. Gomez of the Los Angeles Archdiocese made no reference to the shooting but said: “I am very sad this afternoon to report that our beloved Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell has passed away unexpectedly. It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness.”
Archdiocese spokesperson, Doris Benavides, said Saturday evening the cause of O’Connell’s death was “yet to be determined” and was under investigation. She declined to confirm whether O’Connell had been involved in a shooting.
Archbishop Gomez said O’Connell was a priest and later a bishop in Los Angeles for 45 years.
“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.
“Please join me in praying for Bishop Dave and for his family in Ireland,” the archbishop said. “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.”
A statement from the archdiocese said O’Connell was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1953, and was named an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Pope Francis in 2015.
He studied for the priesthood at All Hallows College in Dublin and was ordained to serve in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1979. After…
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