Bishop Lamor Whitehead and a number of congregants at Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries were robbed by gunmen during a service on Sunday, July 24.
The gunmen took approximately $1 million worth of jewelry. The Brooklyn-based bishop, who is often criticized for his display of opulence in the form of expensive jewelry and lavish cars, said that the incident left his congregation and family members feeling “traumatized.” The incident took place during a livestream of the service.
The Christian Post reports:
Whitehead, who leads the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries, says the brazen attack caught on video made him “hurt” because “my church is hurt.”
“The women and children that were in my church, my daughter, she’s traumatized. Right now, she’s still not even talking because of that experience. They had the gun in my 8-month-old’s face. The women of my ministry, my wife, everybody is traumatized,” Whitehead revealed to his 1.6 million followers on Instagram and Facebook in the aftermath of the attack.
The New York City Police Department reported that three gunmen entered the church around 11:14 a.m., bursting through doors.
The video of the incident shows Whitehead quickly surrendering to the gunmen as they relieved him, his wife and their congregation of their precious stones.
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“As I was preaching, I seen three to four armed men come in,” explained Whitehead, who said he quickly indicated to his congregants that they should get down as the gunman entered.
“I didn’t know if they just wanted to shoot the church up or were just coming for a robbery. And they were all black men. They had masks, and they came in, and they took all of my wife’s jewelry and all of my jewelry,” Whitehead said.
“When I laid down on the floor and the young man came, the young man came and put the gun into my back, as you all see on the video. He took my watch, took my jewelry, took my bishop’s ring, took my wedding band, and then they took my bishop’s cross, and then I had my other chains underneath my shirt. And he tapped my back … and ripped my collar off just to get to my jewelry.”
Read the full article here.