Brooklyn ‘Bling Bishop’ robbery suspect killed in NJ police shootout

🚨U.S. Marshals were fired on as they served a warrant at a South Brunswick hotel

🚨News reports ID'd him as the suspect wanted for robbing a Brookyln pastor

🚨The pastor, who lives in NJ, said he forgives Leggette

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A Route 1 hotel was the scene of a fatal shootout while U.S. Marshals tried arresting a suspect wanted in the live-streamed robbery of a notorious Brooklyn bishop.

State Attorney General Matt Platkin said the marshals and members of the New York office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived at the MHO Inn just south of Promendae Boulevard around 2 p.m. The individual to be arrested on several felony offenses fired at the officers, who fired back.

The suspect was pronounced dead around 4:30 p.m., according to Platkin. Two firearms were found near him, officials said. No officers were struck during the incident.

Platkin did not disclose the identity of the suspect.

A law enforcement source told New Jersey 101.5 that the suspect came out of his room firing at the marshals.

'Bling Bishop' robbed during live-streamed service

Unnamed federal law enforcement sources told several media outlets that the suspect was Shamar Legette, 44, one of three men charged in the armed robbery of Bishop Lamor Whitehead during a livestream of a church service in Brooklyn in 2022.

Three men got away with $1 million worth of jewelry from Whitehead and his wife.

Whitehead, nicknamed the "Bling Bishop" for his large rings and jewelry he wears, was charged in 2022 with defrauding a parishioner out of $90,000 in retirement funds and getting a half-million dollar loan from another to finance his million-dollar Paramus home.

Whitehead addressed the shooting during a live stream on his Facebook account Wednesday, saying that he was falsely accused on public platforms of setting up the robbery.

“We were ridiculed. They destroyed my name, every platform that said that the bishop set up the robbery. I’m talking about they destroyed my name. They’ve turned Bishop Whitehead from a victim into a villain,” Whitehead said referring to himself in the third person.

"This was the guy who put the gun in my wife's face and in my 8-month-old daughter's face," Whitehead said.

"He ripped my clergy collar off and ripped my chains off and he was just brutal. They've been looking for him and searching for him and today the marshals caught him in New Jersey. He didn't want to give himself up, he had a weapon and was killed."

'I forgive him'

Whitehead called it a "sad situation" and sent condolences to his family.

"I forgive him. I was angry but I forgive and I want to extend my services to his family. I would eulogize him, preach the service and do whatever I can do as a pastor free of charge," Whitehead said.

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