Source: New York Daily News / Getty
Bishop Lamor Whitehead, the flashy NYC pastor who was robbed by gunpoint while delivering a sermon, has made headlines again. This time, the Brooklyn-based pastor is being slammed with criticism for the way he manhandled a female churchgoer during a recent Sunday sermon.
Over the weekend, the 44-year-old minister was caught on camera giving a live-streamed sermon at his Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries church in Canarsie, when a woman in the congregation began shouting. At one point, the women’s loud cries began to interrupt the pastor’s sermon.
Bishop Whitehead could be seen trying to overtalk the woman, but the unidentified congregant kept shouting louder. Further along in the video, the woman can be seen walking past the pulpit, as if she’s walking toward someone off-camera. That’s when Whitehead quickly rushed the woman, grabbing her by the neck and shoving her out of the frame.
“Go over here, go over here,” he tells the woman in the video.”Grab her out.”
He could later be heard telling her off-screen: “Press whatever charges if you want, you’re not going to come in my space. I feel threatened.”
After the woman was removed, Bishop Whitehead went back to delivering his sermon as if nothing happened.
Social media slams pastor for grabbing the woman
Cops showed up at the scene following the altercation. According to TMZ, Bishop Whitehead and the angry woman were taken down to the precinct for questioning, but no charges were filed against the pastor.
Online, a few users lit into the pastor for the way he forcefully grabbed the woman by her neck during the incident.
“We all saw you choke that lady!!” wrote one person on Instagram. “She was not running she literally walked up and was going past you, and then you assaulted her. She needs to press charges and sue.” While another Twitter user wrote, “Bishop Whitehead is a false prophet and his cult needs to be dismantled.”
Bishop Whitehead addresses the altercation
Later on, Bishop Whitehead released a lengthy Facebook live video addressing the events that lead up to the incident. According to the Brooklyn minister, the woman seen in the video was retaliating against twin lawsuits he had previously filed against two YouTubers who accused him of stealing from his congregation. The allegations surfaced shortly after a shocking video caught Whitehead being robbed at gunpoint by thugs who allegedly stole over $400,000 worth of jewellery while he was delivering a sermon back in July.
“I know that everyone’s building a narrative, but it is what it is,” the Canarsie-based pastor explained during his Facebook live session. “We had some visitors in the church, and they were sent by two nobodies — two bloggers that are nobodies… they were sent into my church to disrupt my church.”
Bishop says the woman tried to “attack” his family
Whitehead alleged that the whole kerfuffle was a “set-up” in response to the lawsuits he filed. The pastor said he grew concerned when the woman began approaching his wife and daughter off-camera, and that’s when he stepped in to take “action.”
“This lady went towards my wife to attack her and my daughter and that’s when I grabbed her and did what I had to do, what any man, and what any pastor would do.”
The bishop went on to claim that he was a “gentleman” and “pro-woman.” He also denied choking the angry disrupter.
“All they want is followers,” he said of the bloggers who allegedly orchestrated the incident. “When people are irrelevant, they now have to create content.”
“It’s an attack on who I am.” he continued. “I am not a person who would try to hurt anyone.”
The pastor finished his lengthy confessional by warning the alleged bloggers to stand down. “You’re not going to threaten or jeopardize any of my members. Nobody’s going to put a hand on my family. I’m going to protect my family,” he added.
Earlier this month, Bishop Whitehead filed twin lawsuits seeking $40 million in damages from YouTubers DeMario Jives and Larry Reid after they accused him of stealing from his congregation. The lawsuit states, that Jives allegedly told his followers that the pastor was wearing the same swag that was taken from his church. Reid claimed that the pastor was scamming his congregants out of money. He also claimed that the Bishop would be “locked up” for his alleged crimes soon. In the suit, Whitehead said that the allegations spread by both Jives and Reid have cost him “business deals, church members and income,” according to The Daily Mail.
The woman in the video later shared footage of the injuries she sustained after the tussle. Listen to what she had to say down below.
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