On Jan. 27, Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell attended a memorial Mass for one of the 11 people who were killed at a dance studio in Monterey Park. On Sunday, Feb. 19, he was the subject of one.
The San Gabriel Valley is known as a safe and even sleepy area, where people come to raise their families in peace, but in the span of less than a month, the region was the site of a mass homicide and the fatal shooting of O’Connell, a beloved L.A. County Roman Catholic bishop.
The unprecedented, back-to-back spate of gun violence in the early weeks of a new year has given the community mourning whiplash. Their impact runs deep in the quiet suburbs of Monterey Park and Hacienda Heights and in the region’s shaken Catholic community.
“I am deeply saddened and disturbed that someone so beloved in his community was taken away, and it does remind me of the 11 people in Monterey Park,” said Monterey Park Councilmember Henry Lo, who just weeks ago as the city’s mayor was helping his community face the tragedy of a massacre. “It seems so senseless and so mind boggling as to why this happened.”
The Monterey Park mass shooting took place at Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Jan. 21. The gunman, Huu Can Tran, shot himself after being circled by law enforcement the following day.
O’Connell was shot and killed in his Hacienda Heights home around 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies arrested suspect Carlos Medina, whose wife was O’Connell’s housekeeper, at their Torrance home at 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 20.
Just as Monterey Park was shaken, the county’s vast Roman Catholic community and local residents are reeling from O’Connell’s sudden and violent death.
“I thought it was a bad joke,” said local resident Patricia Maravilla, referring to the moment she heard the news about O’Connell’s death.
At the time of his death, O’Connell led the parish at St. John’s Vianney in Hacienda Heights, but was well known and loved in Catholic congregations throughout Los Angeles.
“You never expect somebody that respected, that admired, for something like this to happen,” she said. “For somebody to be shot, in this neighborhood, you just don’t expect it.”
Maravilla has lived in the San Gabriel Valley her entire life and cannot remember a month this bloody.
Lo said he’s surprised that so much recent gun violence has occurred in the San Gabriel Valley, but noted that it fits into broader trends, pointing to the fact that in 2023 there have been more mass shootings in American than days.
“The overall feeling that the region is a great and safe place to live in, to raise a family to in, to work in has been punctuated by these recent instances of gun violence, and I think it just shows that that no community is immune from gun violence,” said Lo.
“The reality is there is no playbook for what our communities have gone through.” – Henry Lo, Monterey Park city councilmember
West Covina resident and devout Catholic Johnny Flores, shared a similar outlook.
“I’m not shocked, because of the evils in the world nowadays. We know a lot of people have a lot of hatred in them,” he said. “I’m shocked maybe because it happened in our area, but not shocked that it happened to the church.”
Flores himself has an intimate understanding of gun violence as he grew up in East L.A. and was a gang member for 16 years, he said. He found God and Catholicism while in prison and chose to leave his “gangbanging” years behind, moving to West Covina to start a new, safer life with his wife and kids.
In his 10 years living in West Covina he has not heard a single gunshot, but that doesn’t change the fact that guns are all around, he said.
“Guns are so easy to get,” he said, noting that he possessed at least 50 unregistered guns during his gang years.
“There’s always going to be guns, there’s always going to be violence, they are in the city.”
Now Hacienda Heights residents and the Catholic community must begin the difficult and all too familiar process of healing in the wake of senseless violence.
“The reality is that there is no playbook for what our communities have gone through,” Lo said. “All we can do is provide comfort for each other and also provide support in trying to make sense (of the violence) and move forward.”
In Monterey Park, the memorial established outside of Star Dance Studio became an important gathering place for grieving, gathering and processing. It has played host to scores of community events including vigils, religious ceremonies and visits from top ranking officials such as Vice President Kamala Harris.
A similar phenomenon is now playing out at the intersection of Janlu and Los Robles avenues outside of O’Connell’s house. What started as a few bouquets of flowers and candles on Saturday night has since expanded to envelop the block. The site draws visitors day and night who come to pray, to cry, to complete a rosary and to ensure the candles always stay lit.
“I think it’s very important that communities have a physical space to reflect, to mourn and to console one another,” said Lo.
Father Albert Alvenido and members of the Sacred Heart Church youth ministry held a prayer service at the memorial on Sunday afternoon. And, downtown at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Archbishop Jose Gomez dedicated Sunday’s 10 a.m. Mass to O’Connell. It was just shy of a month after O’Connell himself was among the priests helping to officiate a vigil Mass for the massacre victims at St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church in Monterey Park.
In both Monterey Park and Hacienda Heights, the community has been left to grieve while waiting for an elusive motive for why a gunman would bring such violence.
“Even when someone is arrested or taken out of the ability to harm others, communities will still have to grapple about why? What’s the motive? Could there have been interventions done?” said Lo, adding that this can be very frustrating to deal with.
From the Monterey Park tragedy efforts to mobilize financial support for those most impacted by the shooting and to advocate for stricter gun laws have emerged.
O’Connell’s death is also likely to spark action, given his impact on so many across the region.
Therese Funk, executive director of Counseling Partners of Los Angeles, said the gravity of the loss must be followed by a push to make real the very vision that O’Connell preached.
“I will allow myself a little time to grieve,” Funk said. “But I know now he is no longer with us on earth and it is up to those who remain to keep his mission alive, there is no time to lose. I now know even more how everything can change in an instant. To honor his life and my love for him, I will keep working for all he believed in, to be a more loving, determined force for those in need.”
O’Connell was known as a humanitarian and served at five different South LA churches during the height of the area’s gun violence epidemic in the early 1990s. He served as founder and chairman of the interdiocesan SoCal Immigration Task Force and helped support migrant children who were in Los Angeles without their parents. He was known to donate clothes to the homeless, rally support for parishioners in need and help distribute free food.
“To me personally, the legacy I want for him is for us to love everyone with an open heart, to see every person as worthy of love and deserving of our help to ensure a bright future,” said Funk.
Flores said that he finds peace and solace in religion and in knowing that because O’Connell was so close to the Lord, he likely didn’t fear death.
“I know he lived to die for the Lord and if you die for the Lord you die a martyr,” said Flores. So he’s going straight to heaven.”
Source: Orange County Register
Be First to Comment