The flashy Brooklyn bishop acknowledged for flaunting his Gucci satisfies, diamond-encrusted chains and steady of luxury motor vehicles says it’s not his fault he was qualified in a $1 million jewelry heist.
Bishop Lamor Miller-Whitehead – who’s cozy with Mayor Adams and beforehand did 5 a long time in jail for identity fraud and grand larceny – insisted on Instagram that his public shows of wealth didn’t lead to Sunday’s gunpoint theft during his are living-streamed company in Canarsie.
“It’s not about me being flashy,” claimed the Rolls Royce-driving clergyman, 44, in a movie shortly immediately after 3 robbers robbed him and his spouse in the middle of his sermon at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries.
“It’s about me getting what I want to buy. It is my prerogative to buy what I want to obtain.”
The bishop stated he can’t be blamed for standing out in the group, given his status, as critics instructed his “blinged-out’’ look could have designed him an outsized goal.
“Sometimes when you are a regarded bishop, it is a gift and a curse,” Miller-Whitehead reported. “You turn into the talk of the town.”
At the time of the robbery, Miller-Whitehead and his spouse have been sporting extra than $1 million in jewels and gold.
The thieves produced off a treasure trove of items totaling $1,060,000: $75,000 Rolex look at, $75,000 Cavalier enjoy, $25,000 Episcopal ruby and diamond ring, $25,000 Episcopal diamond ring, $25,000 pair of earrings, $20,000 diamond and emerald cross, $20,000 Episcopal ring, $20,000 Episcopal cross and a $10,000 Episcopal gold cross.
“When I see them occur into the sanctuary with their guns, I told everyone [to] get down, every person just get down,” Miller-Whitehead said in a single of two prolonged Instagram video clips he posted late Sunday.
“I did not know if they required to shoot the church up or if they ended up just coming for a robbery.”
The suspects were all putting on masks, but Miller-Whitehead said he could see their faces.
“They took all of my wife’s jewelry and took all of my jewellery, and then they remaining,” the bishop explained, pointing out that he was even robbed of his wedding band and the debacle left his congregants “traumatized.”
“However, these young males did not know that cameras were being on, and we know what car or truck you had been driving.”
The a few suspects fled in a white Mercedes, Miller-Whitehead explained. He stated he observed them improve their apparel in the car or truck as he futilely ran soon after them. They are nevertheless in the wind, police explained Monday.
“For you to kick in a church doorway and appear with guns in the center of support – what God is gonna do to y’all is previously mentioned my paygrade,’’ the bishop mentioned of the suspects whilst shaking his head.
Miller-Whitehead, who said he understands the “rules of the streets,” named on the community to submit any ideas to the NYPD.
The flashy pastor has had ties to Adams given that at the very least 2013 and final produced headlines in Might when he attempted to negotiate the surrender of an accused subway shooter and claimed to have spoken with Hizzoner even though the suspect was on the free.
He appeared at much more than a dozen higher-profile events that Adams attended during Adams’ tenure as the Brooklyn borough president, and in 2016, the then-BP released Miller-Whitehead as “my very good pal and fantastic brother” at a concert in East Flatbush.
At the time, The Put up claimed that Miller-Whitehead was buoyed by Adams’ guidance, which helped him endorse and elevate dollars for Leaders of Tomorrow Brooklyn, a for-gain organization introduced in 2014 that was billed as a youth mentorship non-revenue.
But the company arrived less than scrutiny when it claimed to have partnered with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Business, the NYPD and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, corporations that claimed at the time to have no ties to the clergyman’s group.
