The flashy Brooklyn bishop known for flaunting his Gucci suits, diamond-encrusted chains and stable of luxury vehicles says it’s not his fault he was targeted in a $1 million jewelry heist.
Bishop Lamor Miller-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.
“It’s not about me being flashy,” said the Rolls-Royce-driving clergyman, 44, in a video shortly after three thieves robbed him and his wife in the middle of his sermon at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries.
“It’s about me purchasing what I want to purchase. It’s my prerogative to purchase what I want to purchase.”
The bishop said he can’t be blamed for standing out in the community, given his status, as critics suggested his “blinged-out’’ look could have made him an outsize target.
“Sometimes when you’re a known bishop, it’s a gift and a curse,” Miller-Whitehead said. “You become the talk of the town.”
At the time of the robbery, Miller-Whitehead and his wife were wearing more than $1 million in jewels and gold.
The thieves made off with a treasure trove of items totaling $1,060,000: a $75,000 Rolex watch, a $75,000 Cavalier watch, a $25,000 Episcopal ruby and diamond ring, a $25,000 Episcopal diamond ring, a $25,000 pair of earrings, a $20,000 diamond and emerald cross, a $20,000 Episcopal ring, a $20,000 Episcopal cross and a $10,000 Episcopal gold cross.
“When I see them come into the sanctuary with their guns, I told everybody [to] get down, everybody just get down,” Miller-Whitehead said in one of two lengthy Instagram videos he posted late Sunday.
“I didn’t know if they wanted to shoot the church up or if they were just coming for a robbery.”
The suspects were all wearing masks, but Miller-Whitehead said he could see their faces.
“They took all of my wife’s jewelry and took all of my jewelry, and then they left,” the bishop said, pointing out that he was even robbed of his wedding band and the debacle left his congregants “traumatized.”
“However, these young men didn’t know that cameras were on, and we know what car you were driving.”
The three suspects fled in a white Mercedes, Miller-Whitehead said. He said he saw them change their clothes in the car as he futilely ran after them. They are still in the wind, police said Monday.
“For you to kick in a church door and come with guns in the middle of service — what God is gonna do to y’all is above my pay grade,’’ the bishop said of the suspects while shaking his head.
Miller-Whitehead, who said he understands the “rules of the streets,” called on the public to submit any tips to the NYPD.
The flashy pastor has had ties to Adams since at least 2013 and last made headlines in May when he tried to negotiate the surrender of an accused subway shooter and claimed to have spoken with Hizzoner while the suspect was on the loose.
He appeared at more than a dozen high-profile events that Adams attended during Adams’ tenure as Brooklyn borough president, and in 2016, the then-BP introduced Miller-Whitehead as “my good friend and good brother” at a concert in East Flatbush.
At the time, The Post reported that Miller-Whitehead was buoyed by Adams’ support, which helped him promote and raise money for Leaders of Tomorrow Brooklyn, a for-profit firm launched in 2014 that was billed as a youth mentorship nonprofit.
But the firm came under scrutiny when it claimed to have partnered with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, the NYPD and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, organizations that claimed at the time to have no ties to the clergyman’s group.
