A video shared on social media purporting to show a New York City pastor allegedly gripping by the neck a female who interrupted his live-streamed sermon on Sunday may or may not provide a new meaning to bully pulpit.
In a Facebook video, controversial Bishop Lamor Whitehead said — among other things — that he was arrested by the NYPD, but the charges were subsequently dropped.
“I have to protect my family; I have to protect my church,” the self-proclaimed, pro-woman pastor insisted, touting an upcoming press conference in front of the local police precinct to publicly discuss the incident.
He also claimed that the NYPD illegally profiled him, and suggested that cops would not have taken a clergyman of another faith or race into custody. He also indicated that the interrupter is in jail.
Whitehead, 44, is the head of Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie, Brooklyn.
The physical confrontation, which may have its source in social media, starts at about the four-minute mark after the bishop, who sounded like he was initially speaking in tongues, shouts “take the pictures,” over and over, prior to when a woman, whom he may have encouraged to come forward, walks in front of him.
Off camera, he may be the man who can be heard saying “grab her out.”
Watch the video and draw your own conclusions:
After the situation calmed down, Bishop Whitehead reportedly continued on with the religious service.
“It’s unclear what exactly precipitated this, but NYPD sources tell us… there was an argument over somebody filming Whitehead/the service, and it boiled over with an alleged physical confrontation,” TMZ reported, adding that Whitehead claimed, “this woman, and apparently others, were sent in today to disrupt his service — supposedly tied to litigation he’s involved in.”
In a Facebook video that is nearly a half-hour long, he said that two women (who apparently were late arrivals) who allegedly intended to disrupt the service were “sent by two bloggers…to create content.”
“Whitehead had filed twin lawsuits seeking $40 million in damages against YouTubers DeMario Jives and Larry Reid in New York earlier this month, after they accused him of stealing from his congregation,” the Daily Mail asserted.
This is not the first time that the flamboyant church leader, whom some media outlets have dubbed the “bling bling bishop,” had issues during a live stream.
In late July, armed thugs reportedly robbed him and his wife of about $400,000 (or more) worth of jewelry in a mid-sermon encounter.
Karma? Bronx ‘bling bling bishop’ who was robbed during livestream allegedly had a heist of his own https://t.co/mgfIxb2yqW pic.twitter.com/ipGGnPthTD
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) July 29, 2022
At the time, the New York Post reported that Whitehead, “who’s cozy with Mayor Eric Adams and previously did five years in prison for identity fraud and grand larceny — insisted on Instagram that his public displays of wealth didn’t lead to Sunday’s gunpoint robbery during his livestreamed service in Canarsie.”
This Instagram video embedded below purports to show the police response to the latest incident as well as a woman displaying for the camera a mark on her neck.
View this post on Instagram
The bishop told the New York Daily News that “they lock me up in front of my children, in front of my wife, in front of my church. They publicly embarrassed me and then they drop all the charges after two hours and apologize to me.”
In an update, the Daily News reported on Monday that a woman, 47, allegedly involved in the confrontation was “charged with trespassing and disrupting a religious service,” and is scheduled for arraignment in Brooklyn criminal court.
All suspects are presumed innocent until or unless they are convicted in a court of law of any alleged crimes.
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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