Lamor Whitehead: ‘Controversial’ NYC pastor grabs woman by neck and pushes her off pulpit during sermon
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A shocking video shows a controversial Brooklyn pastor grabbing a female congregant and pushing her from the pulpit during Sunday service. Bishop Lamor Whitehead, 44, was caught in flagrante delicto on his church's live stream during his sermon at Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie.
During his sermon, a woman in the congregation interrupted him and he subsequently asked her to deliver the sermon instead. However, when she tried to walk past the pulpit, Whitehead grabbed her by the neck and shoved her out of the frame. He then resumed his sermon as if nothing happened.
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What happened during the sermon?
At the Sermon, Whitehead is seen telling his congregation, "All we hear is Bishop Whitehead is a liar, all we hear is Apostle Chief, Apostle Bishop Whitehead is a scammer. All we hear is that Leaders of Tomorrow is going to fall." Whitehead suggested that the people who are making these allegations are "snapshotting and shooting right now, they screen recording right now."
He seemed to suddenly stop at one point to listen to someone in the crowd, and then told his congregation, "Let 'em record, let 'em record." A woman could be heard yelling at him, following which he said, "You want to come preach? You want to come preach, come up here. I'm gonna make you famous, yes Lord."
After some back and forth, the woman he later pushed came from the left side of the screen. Then he pushed the woman further and said, "Go over here, go over here. Grab her out." He later told the woman off-screen, "Press whatever charges you want, you're not going to come in my space. I feel threatened." He came back to the altar moments later and calmly said, "Let's get back to the word of God."
According to TMZ, Whitehead and the woman, who remains unidentified, both arrived at a local precinct for questioning later. He has reportedly not been charged in connection with the incident.
Whitehead later took to Facebook to attempt to clarify what had happened. In the video, he can be seen driving home in his Rolls Royce with his Dior suit next to him. He suggested that the woman was threatening his family. "I know that everyone's building a narrative, but it is what it is,' he said, adding, "We had some visitors in the church, and they were sent by two nobodies — two bloggers who are nobodies." "And they were sent into my church to disrupt my church," he alleged.
He went on to explain that he has "lawsuits out, and when retaliation is retaliation, this is what it is." "They came in videoing, and it was a whole set-up," Whitehead said, claiming the woman he shoved was charging at his wife and baby. "That's when I took action and I grabbed the young woman and I escorted her out," he said, adding. "'I am a gentleman, I am pro-woman."
Whitehead claimed he did "what any man and any pastor would do" in such a situation. He denied "choking her." "All they want is followers," he said of 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 said. I am not a person who would try to hurt anyone." He then warned, "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." According to the Daily Mail, Whitehead previously filed twin lawsuits seeking $40 million in damages against two YouTubers, DeMario Jives and Larry Reid, in New York earlier this month, after they reportedly accused him of stealing from his congregation.