The NYPD has identified a wanted third suspect in the brazen armed robbery of flashy Brooklyn Brooklyn bishop Lamor Whitehead during a live-streamed church service nearly a year ago.
Shamar Leggette, 41, was connected to the July 24, 2022, stick-up at Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie — in which masked bandits made off with more than $1 million in jewelry, police said Tuesday night as they released his mugshot.
Investigators were able to link him to the high-profile heist after reviewing video from the area, police sources said.
Just six months before the robbery in January 2022, Leggette was released on parole from state prison, where he was held on robbery, attempted murder, and weapons possession convictions, records show.
His parole expires in February 2024.
He previously served time for first-degree robbery from August 2003 to July 2010, according to the records.
Leggette’s alleged accomplices, Juwan Anderson, and Say-Quan Pollack, both 23, were picked up in Bedford-Stuyvesant in September and hit with federal robbery charges for the stick-up.
Anderson had his bond set at $50,000 during his arraignment. Pollak was ordered held without bail.
Both pleaded not guilty through their attorneys.
Footage of the heist showed Whitehead hitting the floor after the thieves stormed the church in the middle of the infamous pastor’s sermon.
The robbers allegedly targeted both Whitehead and his wife – making off with the bishop’s $75,000 Rolex watch, a $75,000 Cavalier watch, and a $25,000 ruby and diamond ring, among other valuables.
“Armed robbery is an intolerable crime, but to commit such an act during a religious service is incomprehensible,” Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement at the time.
Anderson and Pollack were charged under the US Hobbs Act, which criminalizes robbery and extortion which interferes with interstate commerce — in this case, because some out-of-state donations were used to purchase the stolen items, sources said.
“I forgive them,” Whitehead said as he arrived in Brooklyn federal court before the arraignments. “Now it’s time for justice. Me and my family and my church have suffered long enough.”
The outspoken minister, often seen in Fendi suits, has lashed out at the NYPD, claiming that he didn’t think cops believed him and thought he had staged the robbery.
Whitehead made that claim at a press conference after a September live-streamed incident in which he got into a tussle with a woman who apparently crashed his service.
The luxury-loving clergyman — who rides around in vehicles such as a Rolls Royce — has fought back against critics who blame his lavish lifestyle for attracting criminals.
Whitehead has faced his own share of legal troubles.
Earlier this year, he was sued for $5 million in an ongoing dispute with another congregation over claims he tried to kick them out of their house of worship, court papers show.
Whitehead has also filed a $200 million lawsuit against a businessman he claims slandered him in an interview with the New Yorker and to the FBI – alleging it’s what led to the federal fraud charges against him.
