former U.S. Army Ranger Luke Sommer sentenced to 24 years in prison for an August 2006 bank robbery in Tacoma, Wash.

Peachland resident and former U.S. Army Ranger Luke Sommer, 22, who holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for an August 2006 bank robbery in Tacoma, Wash.The robbery was carried out by five men in black masks and military garb brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns. It netted $50,000.Bank staff were threatened with death if they did not comply with the gang's demands to open the vault.The gang was tracked down to a barracks in the military base at Fort Lewis, Wash., after a bystander recorded the licence plate number on the robbers' escape vehicle.Sommer had recruited two other Army Rangers to take part in the robbery, and two Canadians.The others have all pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.Sommer fled to B.C. following the robbery and was arrested in his parents' home in Peachland by the RCMP and later extradited to Washington state.The U.S. Attorney's office said Sommer planned to use the proceeds from the robbery to start a crime family in B.C. to rival the Hells Angels.The U.S. District Court was told that a "blood bath" would likely have ensued had police confronted the gang during the robbery. The robbers carried hundreds of rounds of ammunition, wore body armour, possessed a hand grenade and carried a military medical kit.