An arrest reportedly was made in the killing of beloved Los Angeles auxiliary Bishop David O'Connell.
The Los Angeles Times on Monday cited unnamed law enforcement sources revealing the breakthrough in the Saturday slaying.
O'Connell, 69, was fatally shot in his Catholic archdiocese-owned home in Hacienda Heights, where he lived alone.
He was found dead in his bed of a single gunshot wound. The Times, citing unnamed sources, reported the investigation so far has not uncovered signs of a forced entry at the home. Sources don't believe the crime was random.
No other details were immediately released on the arrest from the LA County Sheriff's Department.
Deputies, answering a call for a medical emergency shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday, found O'Connell, and paramedics later pronounced him dead at the scene.
According to the Times, a couple who live on the same street said they hadn't heard a gunshot or other unusual noise before firefighters and ambulance crews arrived.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gómez at first told parishioners O'Connell "passed away unexpectedly," the news outlet noted. It wasn't until Sunday morning that the sheriff's department released a statement saying the death was "being handled as a murder investigation."
"We are deeply disturbed and saddened by this news," the archbishop told the Times. "Let us continue to pray for Bishop Dave and his family. And let us pray for law enforcement officials as they continue their investigation into this terrible crime."
O'Connell was founder and chairman of the SoCal Immigration Task Force, helping children who came to the U.S. without an adult.
"For me, it really is a labor of love," he said in a 2019 article in a Catholic news outlet.
"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."
After the police beating of Rodney King in the 1990s, O'Connell gained a reputation for trying to improve relations between residents of riot-torn neighborhoods and local law enforcement.
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