A controversial New York bishop from Brooklyn, was arrested and then released two hours later, after he grabbed a woman he believed was a threat to his seated-nearby family, shoving her off the pulpit.

Bishop Lamor Whitehead, 44-years-old, was cuffed mid-sermon at his church, Leader’s of Tomorrow International Ministry in Canarsie.after confronting two women he saw enter the church and slide into the back rows of the building.

He told the the New York Daily News that his awareness was piqued because the women’s behaviour seemed to bring back the memory of the same behaviour he’d witnessed in July 2022,  from a group of men who robbed him at gunpoint while he was preaching. 

Bishop Whitehead was robbed of $400,000 (£349,574) during a service in July, as thieves held a firearm to his baby’s face.

He explained that the pair had entered the same way it happened when his church had been robbed.

Bishop Whitehead said: "They lock me up in front of my children, in front of my wife, in front of my church,

"They publicly embarrassed me and then they drop all the charges after two hours and apologise to me," he told the New York Daily News in an interview after he’d been released from a holding cell two hours after the incident took place on Sunday 18th September 2022.

The video of the incident has gone viral on social media. It shows the bishop calling the two women up onto the pulpit, asking if they want to come preach before quipping that "he’s gonna make you famous."

One of the women, off camera, can then be heard screaming before the bishop can be heard shouting for someone to "move her out of here."

One of the women then reportedly ran down the middle-aisle, at which point he claims to have thought only of his wife and child seated close to him.

He told NY Daily News that she then came back, storming towards his wife and 10-month-old baby,

He said: "She went toward my wife and that’s when I grabbed her. I grabbed her and took her out of my church."