On Jan. 27, Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell attended a memorial Mass for one of the 11 people who were killed at a dance studio in Monterey Park. On Sunday, Feb. 19, he was the subject of one.
The San Gabriel Valley is known as a safe and even sleepy area, where people come to raise their families in peace, but in the span of less than a month, the region was the site of a mass homicide and the fatal shooting of O’Connell, a beloved L.A. County Roman Catholic bishop.
The unprecedented, back-to-back spate of gun violence in the early weeks of a new year has given the community mourning whiplash. Their impact runs deep in the quiet suburbs of Monterey Park and Hacienda Heights and in the region’s shaken Catholic community.
“I am deeply saddened and disturbed that someone so beloved in his community was taken away, and it does remind me of the 11 people in Monterey Park,” said Monterey Park Councilmember Henry Lo, who just weeks ago as the city’s mayor was helping his community face the tragedy of a massacre. “It seems so senseless and so mind boggling as to why this happened.”
The Monterey Park mass shooting took place at Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Jan. 21. The gunman, Huu Can Tran, shot himself after being circled by law enforcement the following day.
O’Connell was shot and killed in his Hacienda Heights home around 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies arrested suspect Carlos Medina, whose wife was O’Connell’s housekeeper, at their Torrance home at 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 20.
Just as Monterey Park was shaken, the county’s vast Roman Catholic community and local residents are reeling from O’Connell’s sudden and violent death.
“I thought it was a bad joke,” said local resident Patricia Maravilla, referring to the moment she heard the news about O’Connell’s death.
At the time of his death, O’Connell led the parish at St. John’s Vianney in Hacienda Heights, but was well known and loved in…
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