MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

LA Auxiliary Bishop shot dead

Bishop David chaired a charity dedicated to children and families in Central America

Los Angeles Catholic Auxiliary Bishop David O'Connell was shot dead Saturday in a case local investigators are handling as murder, it was reported.

The city's Police Department received an emergency call around 1 pm local time Saturday. The responding officers found O'Connell's lifeless body. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He was in the bedroom of a house and had a gunshot wound to his torso that was still bleeding.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this news,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement.

“His legacy will live on,” the LAPD noted Sunday on Twitter.

O'Connell, 69, was found dead Saturday in the 1500 block of Janlu Avenue in Hacienda Heights, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a news release, although the prelate's name was not in the official document. His identity was confirmed by deputies to CBS News, UPI reported.

“I am very sad this afternoon to report that our beloved Auxiliary Bishop David O'Connell has passed away unexpectedly. It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness,” Gomez went on.

“Bishop Dave was a man of deep prayer who had a great love for Our Blessed Mother. 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,” Gomez added.

“He was also a good friend, and I will miss him greatly. I know we all will.”

O'Connell was born in Ireland in 1953 and was appointed auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles by Pope Francis in 2015. He had been stationed in that archdiocese since 1979 and was the chairman of an inter-diocesan task force coordinating aid to children and families in Central America.