Catholic leaders across the nation have joined Los Angeles in mourning the death of Bishop David O’Connell who died Feb. 18 after he was shot.

“Friends, L.A. has lost a great bishop,” Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron said in a tweet. “Please join me in praying for the Archdiocese [of Los Angeles], Bishop Dave's parish, his family and friends, and swift justice.” 

O’Connell, 69, who had served the city of Los Angeles almost four decades as a priest and was beloved by many, was found dead in his residence, the National Catholic Register reported. He had been shot in the upper torso.  

Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrested Carlos Medina, 65, calling him the primary suspect in the killing, after an intensive search. At a news conference Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said help from citizens led to the arrest, Angelus News reported. 

Medina’s wife is a housekeeper who had worked at O’Connell’s home in Hacienda Heights. 

About 150 people gathered in the parking lot of St. John Vianney Church in Hacienda Heights on Monday night for the second night of a prayer vigil. The mourning was attended by members of the local Knights of Columbus chapter and the parishioners in memory of O’Connell. 

The vigil took place in front of a small outdoor shrine devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mourners held candles and embraced each other during the prayers, Angelus News reported. The first vigil had taken place Sunday night outside O’Connell’s home on Janlu Avenue. 

O’Connell, who also served as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee on the Catholic campaign for human development, was known throughout the community as a peacemaker. 

He was awarded the Evangelii Gaudium Award from St. John's Seminary in Camarillo in September in honor of his selfless dedication to the Los Angeles community and church, the National Catholic Register reported. 

"Out of his love for God, he served this city for more than 40 years, as an immigrant from Ireland,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said in an L.A. Catholics report. “I would say that among the many things that I admired in him in his life and ministry was that he was fluent in Spanish with an Irish accent.” 

O'Connell was born in Ireland in 1953 and studied for the priesthood at the former All Hallows College in Dublin. 

He earned a bachelor of arts in philosophy and English literature from University College Dublin in 1975 and followed that with a bachelor of divinity in 1977 from Maynooth College, and a masters of spirituality in 1987 from Mount St. Mary's College, L.A. Catholics said. 

After he was ordained, O'Connell worked as associate priest in several parishes before taking over as pastor at the South Los Angeles parishes of St. Frances X, Cabrini, Ascension, St. Eugene and St. Michael's.

"Every day he worked to show compassion to the poor, to the homeless, to the immigrant, and to all those living on society’s margins,” Gomez said. “He was a good priest and a good bishop and a man of peace. We are very sad to lose him."