‘AK-47 bandit’ who shot at KHP trooper pleads guilty to bank Nebraska robbery

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man dubbed the AK-47 bandit and accused of holding up banks in several states has pleaded guilty to robbing a bank in Nebraska.

Gathercole in a Dawson County Nebraska courtroom July 2018 image courtesy KNOP TV

Gathercole on surveillance video from July 2012 robbery at a bank in Washington State

Richard Gathercole could face up to 35 years in prison after admitting Monday in federal court that he used an AK-47 to rob a Nebraska City bank in 2014. The 40-year-old Gathercole also pleaded guilty to a 2017 carjacking that led to his arrest.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods says the plea deal stipulates that Gathercole won’t be prosecuted by other jurisdictions for other violent crimes, including the shooting of a Kansas state trooper in Sherman County in 2017 and bank robberies in California, Idaho, Iowa and Washington state.

Some of the crimes had passed the five-year federal statute of limitations.

Gathercole is scheduled for sentencing in June.