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.
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.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, the sheriff’s department said. The archdiocese said O’Connell lived in Hacienda Heights — an unincorporated community about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles — but it was not immediately clear whether he was found at his home or elsewhere. Gabriela Gil first met O’Connell when she was pregnant with her youngest child after a Catholic school Mass.
News of his killing stunned her — just last year, O’Connell had presided over her son’s confirmation. The LA County sheriff offered the agency’s condolences, saying detectives are “committed to arresting those responsible for this horrible crime.”
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