Church leader shot in suspected robbery [Updated]

A church leader was shot during a suspected robbery outside his Riverside County parish Tuesday night, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Just before 10 p.m., Antonio Garduno heard a noise in the courtyard of Our Lady of Tepeyac, which is in an unincorporated area of the county, authorities said. When he went outside to investigate, he encountered four juveniles and was shot. The four fled in a dark-colored vehicle.

Garduno was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition.

-- Raja Abdulrahim

[Updated at 3:28 p.m.: A previous version of this story identified Antonio Garduno as a Catholic bishop. His church is not part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino.]

Comments

[Maria Echeverria]

Just to clarify that this gentleman was not a Roman Catholic Bishop, but rather a member of the Orthodox Catholic Church, which is not in communion with the Vatican.

[Tod Tamberg, Archdiocese of Los Angeles]

Antonio Garduno is not a Roman Catholic bishop. The Bishop of the San Bernardino Diocese is Gerald Barnes. The auxiliary bishop is Rutilio del Riego.

Also, there is no parish by the name of Our Lady of Tepeyac in the Diocese of San Bernardino

[Obbop]

What are the odds that the suspects are illegal alien invaders or the vile spawn of illegals?

[dominic]

Lets pray for our Bishop and the crazy people who did this!

[dominic]

Ok he is not our Catholic Bishop but prayers none the less. Lets pray they get back in communion with our one true Church!

[Rockboy]

Further clarification is needed here. Antonio Garduno is a bishop with the "Orthodox Catholic Church of America". This renegade, recently established church was founded by someone named Archbishop David Leon Cooper out of Northridge, California and has no legitimacy whatsoever. It has no affiliation with either the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches at all. Itis basically a bunch of guys running around in clerical outfits pretending to be priests.

[Trojan Al]

Obbop, I'd say the odds are extremeley good. Hope Lou Dobbs is there on the scene with his cameras.

[Lars]

" Itis basically a bunch of guys running around in clerical outfits pretending to be priests."

Hey! That's funny! That's how I feel about every "official" from an organized religion.

[Carol B.]

You people are amazingly horrible. This man was shot by thugs with guns and all you can talk about is an incident that happened a decade and a half ago which was never PROVEN at all. What is wrong with you that instead of being disgusted by violent crime in your midst, you prefer gossip. This man is not "running around pretending to be a priest." He has more holiness in his little toe than those who would defame him. I know him personally and he is not to be reviled by the likes of you who speak without knowing him.

FYI, Bishop Garduno was railroaded years ago by the Diocese of San Bernardino in the person of Bishop Straling, who preferred to listen to innuendo than to one of his duly ordained priests. Fr. Garduno then left the diocese, not the priesthood, and became part of the Orthodox Catholic Church which is in dialogue though not in communion with the Vatican. He has since spent his time and energy in Home Gardens, a patently unsafe neighborhood, to work with troubled youth and locals to try to get them on a better path than gangs and drugs and the like. He has now, ironically, been shot by people of the ilk he has been helping lo these many years.

I for one will pray that people and especially the press will begin to focus on the perpetrators, not on crucifying the victim. Remember, HE did not shoot people. HE perpetrated no crime here. HE did not harm anyone.

What about the histories and backgrounds of the CRIMINALS who did this to Bishop Garduno?

This pathetic, prurient barrage of garbage needs to STOP.

And for those of you IN the hierarchy of the Diocese of San Bernardino who did NOTHING to retain this wonderful priest back in the 90's ----SHAME on you. And for those of you in the Archdiocese who denounce him, SHAME.

[DM Reed]

"Orthodox Catholic Church of America"??? Yep, Rockboy's description is pretty acurate: just a bunch of guys in clerical outfits pretending to be priests. However, still offer my prayers for the victim and purpetrators of this crime.

[Paul Ortega]

I am so sick and tired of lame, racist posters like Obbop and Trojan Al when they immediately assume that crimes like this are committed by the undocumented or their citizen offspring. Well, guess what kids, five men were arrested yesterday for this crime and not a one has an Hispanic or otherwise "ethnic" surname nor appears by their booking photos to be Hispanic, Asian, Black, or any other racial minority. Nope, Messrs. Bagley, Buschow, Coleman, Jacquemain and Swindle look like they are just your everyday loser trash, who also happen to be Caucasian (notice I refrained from calling them "white trash.") Of course I would never expect numbskulls like Obbop and Trojan Al to ever come back here and acknowledge their erroneous postings, because they are probably too busy right now scouring the various news sites for other stories like this one that they can respond to with their racist filth. Get a life guys, and get real.

[Obbop]

Leave it to an Ortega (or those of his ilk) to pull the "race card." the sign of a well-indoctrinated mind.

The FBI when compiling crime statistics lumps Hispanics/Latinos/Chicanos and their crimes under the "white" heading,

Something unique about the Hispanics/Latinos/Chicanos is how they run to the defense of their ethnicity and/or their country of origin to the detriment of loyalty to the USA. Ethnicity before nationality.

I never observed this odd behavior among other ethnicities within the USA.

I also never observed other entering groups, either legal or illegal, attempt to shove their culture upon the USA as has the Hispanics/Latinos/Chicanos.

I have seen MANY negatives due to the invaders from the south.

Sure every group has its proverbial bad apples but those barbarian-like hordes from the south (just look at the countries their cultures create, oligarchical cesspools) are a detriment to a civilized 1st-world country/society/culture.

Observe how many entrants from China, Korea and Japan excel in the USA without demanding the USA cater to them!!!!

Those Asians fill universities, valuing education unlike the barbarians.

Here are federal statistics for Cantua Creek, CA, almost 100 percent Mexican (who are 60 percent or so of the invading horde)

Education attainment for males 25 years and older:

* No schooling: 39
* Nursery to 4th grade: 15
* 5th and 6th grade: 28
* 7th and 8th grade: 5
* 9th grade: 6
* 10th grade: 7
* 11th grade: 0
* 12th grade, no diploma: 6
* High school graduate (or equivalency): 19
* Less than 1 year of college: 0
* Some college more than 1 year, no degree: 0
* Associate degree: 0
* Bachelor’s degree: 0
* Master’s degree: 0
* Professional school degree: 0
* Doctorate degree: 0

Just what the USA needs, a horde of ill- or uneducated bearers of a culture filling our prisons and excelling at creating street gangs decimating entire neighborhoods.

Viva La Raza!!!

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~cmmr/NEWS/L.A.Times_Feb3_99.html

If only the millions of entrants were from northern east Asia.

It would assuredly be a great benefit to the USA.

But, no, we get the ignorant, the cult of machismo, the creators of 2nd- and 3rd-world cultures.

And the invaders and their supporters revel in their barbarism!!!!

Even the non-criminally minded still have trouble adapting to a civilized country that attempts to exist within the rile of law vice the rule by clan.

Anger a Hispanics/Latinos/Chicanos and you made enemies of an entire clan with a, to me, perverted sense of honor and justice.

Along with their barbaric culture the horde from the south appear to be unable to step outside their culture, their group mind-set and their oen egos and even partially view how they come across to others.

Only the Anglo can be racist, you know.

And, it was only recently, that the LAPD chief of police publically admitted that the Chicano horde has and is targeting USA black citizens.

Oh if only the barbaric horde would depart and the superior civilized cultures of China, Korea and Japan would replace them.

[OLT]

I'd like to thank Lars for her positive comments