Federal law enforcement officers executing an arrest warrant killed a man during a shootout in New Jersey on Wednesday, according to the state attorney general’s office.
The man was not immediately identified, but NBC New York reported he was the third suspect in a 2022 armed robbery of Bishop Lamor Whitehead, a prominent Brooklyn pastor with ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Two other men have pleaded guilty to federal charges that they stole more than $1 million in jewelry from Whitehead and his wife while the pastor delivered a livestreamed sermon.
The New Jersey AG’s office, which is investigating the shooting, has not publicly confirmed the man’s identity. The office said in a statement that agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exchanged gunfire with the man while executing an arrest warrant at a motel in Monmouth Junction on Wednesday afternoon.
The AG’s office said the man died from his injuries and no officers were hit. The office also said law enforcement found two guns near him.
Whitehead, also known as the “Bling Bishop, ” was preaching at his church in Canarsie, Brooklyn, in July 2022 when three masked men dressed in black entered with guns drawn, according to federal prosecutors.
As parishioners watched both in person and on a livestream, Whitehead got on the ground and the men proceeded to take expensive jewelry and religious items, including a $125,000 wedding ring and $20,000 emerald cross, an itemized list provided to Gothamist after the robbery showed.
The incident made headlines and brought attention to a pastor already familiar with the limelight for his friendship with the mayor and his pledges to help negotiate the surrender of a man who had shot a stranger on the Q train in May 2022.
But Whitehead has also faced scrutiny for wearing lavish jewelry and clothes. Several months after the robbery, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted him on charges that he swindled $90,000…
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