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The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Catholic bishop in Los Angeles was identified Monday as the husband of the clergy member’s housekeeper, authorities said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert G. Luna identified the suspect in Saturday’s slaying of Bishop David O’Connell as Carlos Medina, 65, of nearby Torrance.
The housekeeper was not implicated and was not identified.
Luna said his department, responsible for investigating the homicide in the community of Hacienda Heights, received tips about Medina’s location and a possible motive — they said the man believed O’Connell owed him money.
Luna said security video showed an SUV similar to the one used by the housekeeper temporarily in the driveway of the bishop’s residence before the murder. The suspect had done “some work” at the home previously, he said.
At least one tipster was “concerned because Medina was acting strange, irrationally, and making comments about the bishop owing him money,” Luna said at a Monday afternoon news conference.
The suspect left Torrance for Central California, Luna said, but detectives received a tip that he had returned home, prompting a response to the residence that turned into a standoff.
Tactical deputies with the Special Enforcement Bureau ordered the suspect to exit the residence, but he refused for an unspecified span of time Monday morning, Luna said. He eventually surrendered and was arrested without further incident, he said.
A judge-approved search of the residence turned up two guns and other evidence that might be tied to the crime, the sheriff said.
On Saturday, sheriff’s deputies responded to the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue at 12:57 p.m. 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.
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.”
Sheriff Luna vowed to help prosecute the suspect successfully.
“This man, this bishop, made a huge difference in our community,” Luna said. “He was loved.”
