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Bishop Lamor Whitehead was robbed at gunpoint in the middle of a sermon Sunday in Brooklyn as he live-streamed to the audience online; meanwhile, those in attendance would be robbed at gunpoint as well.
Whitehead told CBS2 the door in the back of the room was kicked open and then three men carrying guns walked in.
“I said, ‘Alright, alright, alright,’ pretty much stating that I’m not going to do anything because I know you’re coming for me. You’re coming straight to me. I don’t want my parishioners hurt. I’ve got women and children there,” said Whitehead, of Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries.
“As I got down, one went to my wife and took all her jewelry and had the gun in front of my 8-month-old baby’s face. Took off my bishop’s ring, my wedding band and took off my bishop’s chain, and then I had chains underneath my robe and he started tapping my neck to see if anything else. So that means they knew. They watched and they knew that I have other jewelry,” he explained.
“They had guns on my deacons that was at the door,” said Whitehead. What you don’t see on camera, he said, are around 100 congregants who were in the room. Men, women and children dropped to the floor in silence.
Speaking on the effects of the robbery to his Brooklyn congregation, Whitehead stated, “My church is traumatized. The women and children are still crying. Babies are still crying.” He continued, “These men, they need to turn themselves in. I forgive you and I’m praying for you, and I hope that God deliver you from the mindset of who you are at this time.”
Whitehead also believes the hit was targeted retaliation over the publicity he received in the fatal subway shooting of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez in May; Whitehead states he was portrayed negatively in the media for his material wealth.
Three “unidentified individuals entered the location, robbed the victim and fled the scene in a white Mercedes traveling Eastbound on Avenue D,” police said. The NYPD is currently investigating the matter with the pledged support of Mayor Eric Adams.