David O’Connell was arrested in the killing of a Catholic bishop

Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell was shot and killed in the Los Angeles Archdiocese by a human-rights violating juvenile deportation

Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell was found dead in his home in the Hacienda Heights neighborhood Saturday in what is being investigated as a homicide, the sheriff’s department said.

“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,” the archbishop added.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department previously said investigators responded to a shooting death at 12:57 p.m. on Saturday in the LA suburb of Hacienda Heights, where an adult male was pronounced dead.

O’Connell was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and ordained to serve in the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1979, according to Angelus, a news platform of the archdiocese.

The chairman of the interdiocesan Southern California immigration Task Force was O’Connell, who helped coordinate the church’s response to the recent influx of migrants from Central America.

“And it’s been a great privilege, a great blessing to be given these parishes all these years, to be pastor all these years. The people have touched his heart in a really nice way.

On Saturday, parishioners gathered at the scene of O’Connell’s death and lit candles in memory of the religious leader, Los Angeles Daily News reporter Clara Harter tweeted.

Immigration attorney Linda Dakin-Grimm said O’Connell was “there for every child and family I have represented. Always. Helping, supporting and being the face of Jesus for many others.

Archbishop Dave O’Connell, 77, in Los Angeles, was shot by a community “peacemaker,” the LA County Sheriff’s Department announced

A man was taken into custody in connection with the shooting death of a Catholic bishop renowned for his work as a community “peacemaker,” the LA County Sheriff’s Department announced Monday.

“It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness,” said the archbishop of Los Angeles in a statement Saturday announcing the death of O’Connell.

Bishop Dave was a man of deep prayer, who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother, and was a priest for forty-five years. “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.

“For me, it really is a labor of love,” he said of the task force in 2019, “because this is, I think, what our schools and parishes are all about. For all of our children, not just for those who are separated from their parents. Children with too much are hurting, even the ones that are not. They feel we’ve abandoned them. The migrant youths are a metaphor for our society as a whole.

“I’m brokenhearted. I’ve been crying for the last few days knowing that he’s no longer here to share all of his inspiration and his prayers and everything with us,” parishioner Ramona Torres said.