Fugitive arrested in Nebraska may be AK-47 Bandit

UPDATE: 10:30 a.m. 6-27-17 The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office in Lexington, Nebraska confirms Richard Gathercole, 39, was booked on charges of possession of stolen property and possession of a stolen firearm. Gathercole gave his address as San Jacinto, California. According to the Sheriff’s Office, a deputy saw a 2005 Ford pickup enter the Nebraskaland Truck Stop gas station south of Interstate 80 on northbound Highway 283. The deputy said the suspect driver matched the description of a man who had been involved in a shootout with the Kansas Highway Patrol. Another deputy arrived and Gathercole was taken into custody at gunpoint without incident. Investigators believe Gathercole may be the so-called AK-47 Bandit, who held up several banks, including a Rexburg Credit Union in 2012. ORIGINAL STORY: 6-26-17 HELENA, Mont. (AP) – The Latest on a fugitive arrested in Kansas and an investigation into a series of bank robberies. (all times local): 1:05 p.m. Federal agents say a weekend search of a south-central Montana residence that turned up homemade bombs was connected to a bank robbery investigation. FBI Los Angeles spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says numerous agencies were investigating whether evidence found in the search in Roundup, Montana, was connected to a series of bank robberies in California, Washington state, Idaho and Nebraska. In 2012 and 2014, a man the FBI called “the AK-47 bandit” robbed several banks. The robber shot and wounded a police officer in Chino, California. Officials with the Musselshell County sheriff’s office in Montana say the weekend search was linked to 39-year-old Richard Gathercole, who was arrested last week in Nebraska. He was wanted after someone fired shots at a Kansas trooper. The trooper wasn’t injured. Officials did not say how Gathercole was connected to the residence where the bombs were found. ___ 11:10 a.m. Montana authorities say they found homemade bombs in a home after the arrest of a man accused of shooting at a Kansas state trooper. Richard Gathercole of Roundup, Montana, was arrested Tuesday at a gas station in Lexington, Nebraska, a day after a man fired at the trooper on Interstate 70. The trooper wasn’t injured. The Musselshell County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday that deputies assisted FBI agents and officers from California and Idaho in searching a Roundup home on Saturday. They found numerous improvised explosive devices that were removed by a bomb squad. A dispatcher who answered the phone at the sheriff’s office’s Monday could not immediately confirm that it was Gathercole’s home. Gathercole is being held in Nebraska on charges of theft and possession of stolen firearms.