CNN
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Authorities in California are working to establish the motive that led to the shooting death of a Los Angeles-area Catholic bishop over the weekend as a community mourns the loss of a beloved chief.
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, recognized for being his community’s peacemaker, was discovered fatally shot in his Hacienda Heights dwelling, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department mentioned Monday throughout a information convention.
On Monday morning, authorities arrested Carlos Medina in connection to the case after a tip helped investigators slim down their search, mentioned Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.
Medina, whose spouse is the bishop’s housekeeper, was taken into custody at his Los Angeles-area dwelling in Torrance, California, after an hourslong standoff with police.
Medina, 61, has not been charged with a crime as of Monday, and authorities haven’t mentioned what preliminary prices he’s at the moment being held on. CNN is making an attempt to find out whether or not Medina has an legal professional.
The tipster who led police to Medina relayed to investigators that Medina had been appearing unusually and made feedback about the bishop owing him cash, in accordance with Luna, who additionally famous he was not sure of any dispute between the two.
“It’s something that we’ve heard to this point, and that is something that the detectives will go out and validate and see if it’s true or not,” Luna mentioned, referring to the alleged dispute over cash.
“Our investigation continues, which means interviewing multiple witnesses to find out and get a better picture of what happened here.”
As authorities piece collectively what led to the taking pictures loss of life, their search at Medina’s dwelling turned up two firearms along with “other evidence possibly linking Medina to the crime,” Luna mentioned – although he didn’t elaborate on the particulars of the proof.
The weapons allegedly discovered at Medina’s dwelling are underneath examination by a crime lab to find out whether or not any of them was utilized in the taking pictures.
Prior the taking pictures, Medina had executed some work at the bishop’s dwelling, however Luna didn’t elaborate on that kind of work. Medina’s spouse has additionally been cooperating totally with investigators, Luna mentioned.
“My heart grieves although I personally did not know the bishop,” Luna mentioned. “This bishop made a huge difference in our community. He was loved.”
O’Connell, 69, was a pillar in the Los Angeles space who was recognized for his compassion and advocacy work for the immigrant community as nicely as different susceptible teams, together with these experiencing homelessness and people in want.
The preliminary 911 name about O’Connell’s loss of life got here shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday from a deacon who went to his Hacienda Heights residence, which is about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, after the bishop didn’t present as much as a assembly, Luna mentioned throughout the information convention Monday.
O’Connell was present in mattress shot at the least as soon as in the higher physique and was pronounced lifeless at the scene, Luna mentioned, including the actual time of loss of life is pending investigation. Police didn’t get well a firearm from the scene, he added.
At the time, police didn’t find any indicators of compelled entry into the dwelling, and detectives are investigating how the dwelling was accessed, Luna mentioned.
Neither Medina nor his spouse was engaged on Saturday, in accordance with Luna.
Further investigation confirmed that surveillance video caught a dark-colored SUV much like one Medina is thought to drive had just lately pulled into the bishop’s driveway and left after a brief time, Luna mentioned.
Luna didn’t say whether or not that was the similar SUV Medina often drives.
O’Connell’s killing has shocked the Los Angeles Catholic community, some of whom expressed their disbelief of the tragedy and remembered him as a determine who introduced individuals collectively.
At the information convention Monday, archbishop of Los Angeles José Gomez mentioned the community could be very unhappy to lose O’Connell.
“Every day he worked to show compassion to the poor, to the homeless, to the immigrant and to all those living on society’s margins. He was a good priest and a good bishop and a man of peace,” Gomez mentioned.
O’Connell was additionally recognized for his work with the immigrant community, together with serving as chairman of the interdiocesan Southern California immigration Task Force, which helped coordinate the native church’s response to the latest inflow of migrants from Central America, according to Angelus, a information platform of the archdiocese.
“For me, it really is a labor of love,” he said in 2019 referring to the of the process pressure, “because this is, I think, what our schools and parishes are all about. Not just for unaccompanied minors but for all our children. There’s an epidemic of hurting children, even the ones who have too much. They feel we’ve abandoned them. And the migrant youths have become a metaphor for our whole society.”
Janice Hahn, the chairwoman of the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, mentioned Monday the bishop was a longtime buddy of hers.
“He was known to walk among the people,” Hahn mentioned. “He reached out to gang members; he reached out to the homeless; he reached out to the transients. He was the help of the helpless and the hope of the hopeless, and he knew that serving God meant serving man, especially the most vulnerable in our society.”
Correction: A earlier model of this report gave the fallacious age for Medina. He is 61.