Deputies found Bishop David O’Connell with a gunshot wound and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Sunday that it is investigating the death of an auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop who died on Saturday from a gunshot wound as a homicide.
Bishop O’Connell was found shot at a home in Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated suburb in Los Angeles county, after someone reported a medical emergency shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday, according to the sheriff’s department. Deputies found Bishop O’Connell with a gunshot wound and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, the department said.
Bishop O’Connell was born in Ireland and ordained in Los Angeles in 1979, according to Angelus, the multimedia news platform of the Los Angeles archdiocese. He served as pastor in several parishes afflicted by gang violence and poverty in South Los Angeles and was named an auxiliary bishop by Pope Francis in 2015.
Bishop O’Connell was serving as a pastor at St. Frances X. Cabrini Catholic Church when the Los Angeles riots broke out in 1992 after the beating of Rodney King, according to Angelus. After the riots, which left the neighborhood around the parish heavily damaged, he and other local faith leaders helped organize meetings between residents and police officers to provide a chance for dialogue.
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