Crime & Safety
NYC Pastor Robbed Of $1M Worth Of Jewelry During Church Sermon: NYPD
"It?s my prerogative to purchase what I want to purchase," said Lamor Whitehead about "flashy" jewelry robbed during a Sunday livestream.
NEW YORK CITY ? The Brooklyn pastor who tried to deliver a subway attack suspect directly to the mayor was robbed of $1 million of jewelry during a church service caught on livestream Sunday, according to police and video.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead, 44, cut his sermon short when he spotted two armed gunmen enter the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministry in Canarsie about 11:14 a.m., according to police and video posted to YouTube.
"How many of you have lost your faith because you saw somebody else die," Whitehead says. Then he stops, puts his hands up, says "alright," and drops to the floor.
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Video captures images of men in hooded sweatshirts and masks storming through the church, and one of them climbs to the stage to grab an object from Whitehead's hand.
A woman off camera cries, "Go to your mom, go," then, "Stay there."
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Whitehead said in an Instagram video posted after the robbery that he saw three or four armed men whom he believed had targeted him.
"It was specifically for me," Whitehead said. "And of course my wife."
"When you have celebrity status, it is a gift and a curse," Whitehead added.
He also struck a defensive tone about the "flashy" jewelry at least two armed gunmen lifted off him and his wife as church congregants cowered in fear.
?It?s not about me being flashy," he said. "It?s about me purchasing what I want to purchase. It?s my prerogative to purchase what I want to purchase. If I worked hard for it, I can purchase what I want to purchase.?
Whitehead is no stranger to bizarre headlines and controversy.
He last grabbed New Yorkers' attention in May, when he tried to broker the surrender of subway slaying suspect Andrew Abdullah directly to the mayor. And, for several hours, Whitehead drew outsize media attention ? and confusion ? when he showed up outside a Chinatown police precinct in a Rolls Royce.
The deal eventually fell through in spectacular fashion as NYPD officers swarmed Abdullah outside his lawyers' office in a much-criticized arrest.
The bizarre negotiation and arguably botched end apparently didn't end the connection between Adams and Whitehead, who has described himself as a mentee of the mayor and unsuccessfully ran for his past post as Brooklyn's borough president.
Whitehead, after the jewelry heist, said he received a concerned call from Adams, among others.
The robbery itself unfolded about 11:14 a.m. inside Whitehead's Remsen Avenue church, police said.
Police told Patch that $1 million in jewelry was reported stolen ? much more than originally reported in New York Daily News and other outlets. They didn't directly identify the victims, but did identify them as a man, 44, and his wife, 38 ? a description that matches Whitehead, who said on his subsequent video that the robbers targeted them both.
The robbers left the church and drove off in a white Mercedes Benz after the robbery, police said. Whitehead claimed in a video that he chased after the gunmen and saw them changing clothes in the vehicle before driving off.
Whitehead said his congregation is "traumatized" after the heist.
?It hurts me because my church is hurt,? he said.
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