A Brooklyn bishop held his first service on Sunday following a livestreamed armed robbery.
On Sunday, in a bizarre display Bishop Lamor Whitehead re-enacted the robbery that took place on July 24 when three men entered the church, held him and his family at gunpoint and allegedly took off with a million dollars worth of jewelry, ABC 7 news reported.
The bishop, known for sporting a lavish lifestyle has been accused of staging an insurance scam to continue funding his heart’s desires, the New York Post reported.
Whitehead maintains he did not stage the heist and that people should not focus on his flashy lifestyle.
“And he must’ve knew something about a robbery. Are you kidding me? Let my church, give us some sympathy,” he said. “If I keep answering what critics are saying so they can sell media, then I’m going to stunt the growth of my ministry.”
Amid the accusations, the New York bishop is now having to respond to a lawsuit a churchgoer filed against him in Sept. 2021.
A parishioner filed a lawsuit against Whitehead alleging that he convinced her to give him 90 thousand dollars in exchange for a home after struggling with bad credit, CBS News reported.
Whitehead who allegedly used the money to purchase a multi-million-dollar home called the lawsuit a “fictitious claim.”
According to the New York Post, the Brooklyn pastor is friends with New York City Mayor Eric Adams who “encouraged [him] to keep [his] head strong.”
During an unrelated press conference held last week, Adams said, “Lamor and any other individual that I support, I continue to try to mentor. As a Black man, I have an obligation to mentor other Black men that had negative encounters in their lives and other people in general,” he said.