Soldiers of Fortune

To customers and employees in the Bank of America branch that Monday, the invaders rushing through the door had the appearance of commandos on a raid. Ski-masked men in heavy clothing, armed with automatic rifles and sporting soft body armor under their jackets, stormed the one-story South Tacoma BOA branch near closing time, shouting orders and forcing everyone to the floor.

The four-man robbery team brandished handguns, pointed AK-47s, and seemed ready for a firefight, bringing along extra banana-style ammunition clips. "That's a tremendous amount of weaponry and ammunition for a bank robbery," says assistant U.S. attorney Michael Dion in Tacoma.

Though apparently young and of average builds, the four seemed imposing and confident. At 5:15 p.m. Aug. 7, Purple Heart Day in America, they entered through the swinging glass doors on two sides of the neighborhood bank that is sandwiched among the storefronts and car lots of busy South Tacoma Way and almost immediately began counting off the seconds, one robber shouting out the time every half-minute.

According to Monte Shaide, an FBI agent who investigated the case and reviewed the bank's video surveillance tapes, two bandits with automatic weapons watched customers while another, with a handgun, vaulted the counter and ordered a clerk to put only $50 and $100 bills into his bags.

The fourth man, also carrying a handgun, scooped money from other teller stations and $20,000 from a rolling money cart. The robbers steered clear of any dye packs and passed over bait bills with prerecorded serial numbers.

At the two-minute point, the robber counting off time shouted, "Let's go!" The four rushed out the door, ran to a waiting vehicle, and raced off with $54,011.

The elapsed time on the video indicates the robbers were in and out in two minutes, 21 seconds. Shaide marveled at what he called "military-style precision and planning."

Indeed. The next morning, the FBI agent found himself walking around Fort Lewis, the 87,000-acre Army base that is home to 25,000 soldiers and civilians about 20 minutes south of Tacoma.

The fort is a sprawling complex of military battalions and brigades operating under I Corps command and includes infantry, Stryker, engineering, medical, police, and Ranger units. It is a major jump-off point for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have cost the lives of almost 100 Fort Lewis personnel.

Less than 24 hours after the seemingly flawless heist, Shaide and other investigators felt they had already broken the case. Because of the guns, ammo, and assault-style takeover used by the robbers, investigators had a good hunch the team had a military background. "The speed and efficiency of the robbers show that they are highly disciplined and coordinated," Shaide said.

And for all their apparent preparation, the robbers made a sure-to-be-legendary error: they came in their own car. A witness saw masked men jump out of a vehicle carrying AK-47s, then two minutes later run back, jump in, and speed away. The witness figured this just might be a heist. He jotted down the license number of a rather eye-catching silver 2001 four-door Audi with Colorado plates.

Tracked first to its registered owner in the Denver area, the Audi was traced overnight to Fort Lewis. By the second day after the robbery, the first of five suspects would be arrested, and authorities would eventually recover at least $21,000 of the loot. Of the four alleged gunmen and a driver, three turned out to be elite Fort Lewis Army Rangers.

One of them, 20-year-old Luke Sommer, a muscular, square-faced, 6-footer with a mostly shaved head, was accused of putting together the takedown team, arming them with military-style weapons, and leading the raid on the BOA.

A specialist 4 (ranked just above private first class) and a Ranger for three years as of this month, Sommer was a group leader to the other two younger, less-seasoned fellow Rangers, according to officials with knowledge of the case, and, unlike them, has been on secret Ranger missions overseas.

A Canadian with U.S. citizenship, he has pleaded not guilty and is under house arrest in British Columbia. The two other Rangers—from Colorado and Virginia—and the two civilians (also from Canada, one with a military background) have also pleaded not guilty. But prosecutors and attorneys indicate several of the accused have admitted their roles, pointed the finger at each other, and are cooperating.

Prosecutors this week filed updated charges claiming another Ranger, who didn't directly participate in the robbery, told them Sommer planned to use robbery proceeds "to start a crime family" in British Columbia. According to the soldier, Scott A. Byrne, now charged with aiding the robbers, "Sommer planned to challenge the Hell's Angels for control of the drug running and extortion rackets in that area." The FBI alleges Sommer had originally planned to rob a casino but the casino didn't allow people under 21 through the doors. Sommer then decided to use the group's rigorous assault-training techniques, courtesy of Uncle Sam, to go to war with a bank.

But now one of the alleged robbers, who agreed to speak with Seattle Weekly on the condition that he not be identified, says all that cash wasn't the attraction. "Are you kidding?" he says.