A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Catholic bishop who was found shot to death inside his Los Angeles home over the weekend.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell’s Hacienda Heights home Saturday afternoon, where they found the clergyman with a gunshot wound to his upper torso in his bed. The 69-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
The following day, deputies officially said they were investigating O’Connell’s death as a murder before announcing on Monday that they have made an arrest.
Authorities told NBC 4 Los Angeles the man was identified early on in the investigation through an ‘unnamed technical means,’ and he was arrested without incident — though a reporter on the scene said the man had barricaded himself inside his home overnight.
The suspect’s name has not yet been released, but neighbors have identified the suspect as Carlos Medina, whose wife worked with the bishop.
A news conference on the arrest is expected at 3pm local time.
Los Angeles Daily News reporter Clare Harter said the suspect had barricaded himself in his home, with a neighbor reporting that sheriff’s deputies first arrived at midnight but the suspect did not emerge until 9am.
One neighbor Luis Lopez said the suspect’s name is Carlos Medina, and his wife had worked for the Bishop O’Connell, and another told Harter that the suspect was an ‘odd man’ in his 50s who was up at all hours of the night to dig in his yard.
‘I’m just shocked and overwhelmed,’ Marty Hernandez told the reporter. ‘You wouldn’t know that you have somebody that lives next to your house that would do such a thing.’
His wife’s whereabouts are unknown.
Deputies had received a call reporting that a person was not breathing at the address, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports.
The Los Angeles Times reported that O’Connell was found dead in his bed, with law enforcement sources saying that there were no signs of forced entry at his Janlu Avenue home, which is owned by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
It remains unclear whether a firearm was found at the scene.
The auxiliary bishop’s death was first announced by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which called O’Connell a ‘peacemaker’ and a man of ‘deep prayer’ who cared for everyone during his 45 years with the Church.
‘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 in a statement.
‘He was also a good friend, and I will miss him greatly. I know we all will.
‘Please join me in praying for Bishop Dave and for his family in Ireland. 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.’
sounds like he was cheating with the wife of the killer.
Sounds to me like another Democrat communist anti-American ,Antichrist, Satan worshiping murder performed on a Catholic priest by another illegal Democrat criminal Brown creeping crud moron , who helped and encouraged through no legal prosecution or jail time by another Democrat pedophile open border drug cartel animal that allowed this priest to be killed, by another unvetted illegal Brown creeping crud drug trafficking child trafficking demon just like the demonic pedophile Democrat satanic party who invites, embraces, funds, these criminal coddling demons over the American citizens, because constitutional God loving Americans that are true Patriots don’t vote for pedophile communist but demons do, especially when they’re getting American taxpayer paid bribes who destroy the last free country on this Earth
Ya, what John said.
Don lemon?
yeh … ole’ carlos didn’ care much for this catholic bishop….And … His wife worked for him you say…more to follow after the confession…stay tuned….
“the suspect was an ‘odd man’ in his 50s who was up at all hours of the night to dig in his yard.”
“His wife’s whereabouts are unknown.”
uh ! in the back yard I would suggest !