SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. (PIX11) – A man who was wanted in connection with the gunpoint robbery of a Brooklyn bishop mid-sermon in 2022 was killed by law enforcement in New Jersey Wednesday, a source told PIX11 News.
Shamar Leggette, 41, was killed around 3 p.m. during a standoff with members of the U.S. Marshals Service at a motel in South Brunswick, according to a law enforcement source. Leggette and his girlfriend had been staying at the motel for the past few days, the source said.
The standoff lasted about 15 minutes before Leggette’s girlfriend surrendered, the law enforcement source said. Leggette eventually came out of the motel room and opened fire at law enforcement officers, who returned fire and killed him, according to the source.
Leggette’s girlfriend referred to themselves as a “Bonnie and Clyde” duo, the law enforcement source said.
Leggette was also wanted for attempted murder last summer in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as for the death of a man last month outside a strip club in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a law enforcement source said.
New York State court records show Leggette was convicted of attempted murder in Queens in 2012. After being released from prison 10 years later, he absconded from parole and was subsequently implicated in the Brooklyn church robbery.
Leggette was one of three suspects accused in the robbery of Bishop Lamor Whitehead at Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie on July 24, 2022.
The other two robbery suspects were arrested in September 2022. Juwan Anderson and Say-Quan Pollack pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, according to the Eastern District of New York. Leggette had remained at large ever since the robbery.
The robbery was captured on the church’s online livestream of the service. The armed robbers barged into the church with parishioners in attendance, police said. The victims told police the robbers stole more than $1 million in jewelry, including rings, watches and chains.
“This is the individual that had the gun to my wife’s face and to my 8-month-old daughter’s face. And he was the one that had the gun to the back of my head,” Whitehead told PIX11 News on Wednesday. “My condolences to his family. I’m a forgiving man. I hate what he did to my church and my family.”
Whitehead said that the robbery ruined his reputation.
“Everybody thought [I] set the robbery up. It has destroyed my ministry, destroyed my name,” Whitehead said.
Meanwhile, Whitehead faces his own trial next month. The bishop was arrested in December 2022 for allegedly defrauding a parishioner out of retirement savings, according to officials.
