A suspect has been arrested in the fatal shooting of Catholic Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell — and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it was the husband of the Bishop’s housekeeper, Sheriff Robert Luna announced on Monday.
Carlos Medina, 65, was arrested at his home in the L.A. suburb of Torrance following tips to the Sheriff’s Department after he was believed to have briefly fled to, and returned from, Central California.
O’Connell, 69, was dead found at his home in Hacienda Heights on Saturday with at least one gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Bishop was discovered by a deacon who went to check on the Bishop when he was late for a meeting, according to Luna.
Sheriff Luna said one tipster had told law enforcement that they were concerned about Medina’s “strange, irrational” behavior, and “made comments about the bishop owing him money,” but the department has not yet validated those claims.
According to Luna, two guns were also retrieved at his residence, but it is not yet clear whether they were used in the crime. Medina’s wife, the housekeeper, has been “fully cooperative and assisting the detectives with all the information they have thus far,” Luna explained to reporters.
O’Connell was a native of Ireland who had worked for over 40 years with the immigrant community of Los Angeles and had even sponsored immigrant youth.
“He’s been a pillar in our community,” said Luna on Monday, adding that the bishop was “known as a peacemaker,” and one with a “passion for serving those in need.”
