A suspect was arrested Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of a Catholic bishop in Los Angeles, authorities said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert G. Luna has scheduled a news conference for noon PT to discuss the arrest in Bishop David O’Connell’s slaying.
However, multiple law enforcement sources told NBC Los Angeles that the suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was arrested during an operation by the department’s special enforcement bureau.
Detectives identified him early in the investigation through unnamed technical means, the sources said, adding the man was located and detained without incident.
The arrest came after sheriff’s deputies responded to the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue at around 12:57 p.m. Saturday following a medical emergency call, authorities previously said.
O’Connell, 69, was found with a gunshot wound and pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, the sheriff’s department said. The incident is being investigated as a homicide.
O’Connell, who was originally from Ireland, was a priest and later a bishop in Los Angeles for 45 years, Angelus News, a Catholic news service, reported.
Known fondly as “Bishop Dave,” O’Connell was the “episcopal vicar for the archdiocese’s San Gabriel Pastoral Region since 2015, when Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop,” Angelus reported. O’Connell opted to help soothe tensions between residents and law enforcement in southern Los Angeles.
“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,” Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said in a statement Saturday. “He was also a good friend, and I will miss him greatly.”
The sheriff said O’Connell “had a passion [for] serving those in need while improving our community.”
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