Luke Elliott Sommer
Encyclopedia
Luke Elliott Sommer is a former United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Ranger
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
and bank robber. After almost two years under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, he pleaded guilty on May 27, 2008 to the August 7, 2006 robbery of a branch of the Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
in Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, Washington.
Charges
Sommer is also facing several firearm related charges in the Saanich area of BC, Canada, involving the possession and concealment of a small handgun. Sommer was arrested by RCMP officers in Kelowna British Columbia while attending a court ordered meeting with his bail supervisor. He was arrested on the weapons charge by several plainclothes officers, and was held in Kelowna City cells for several hours before being released on bail.
Background information
Luke Elliott Sommer was born on June 26, 1986 in KelownaKelowna
Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Its name derives from a Okanagan language term for "grizzly bear"...
British Columbia, Canada. He is the son of Luke and Christel Sommer (who have since divorced). He is the oldest of six children (Reagon Sommer)and has one son, Landon Michael Sommer-Rose who was born on March 2, 2003. Sommer was raised as a Christian and was home schooled for a majority of his life. He travelled extensively with his Grandmother, Denise Fichtner, who died on August 8, one day after the robbery in Tacoma.
Sommer joined the Army on June 26, 2003 and was assigned to a basic training class at Sand Hill, Fort Benning
Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama...
Georgia on November 4, 2003, graduating on January 27, 2004. After completing OSUT (One Station Unit Training) attended and completed Airborne School on Fort Benning prior to attending the Ranger Indoctrination Program
Ranger Indoctrination Program
Ranger Assessment and Selection Program is an 8 week course held at Fort Benning, Georgia. RASP is required for all ranks. As of 2010, RASP replaced both the RIP for enlisted Soldiers and ROP for Officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned. and below to be assigned to the U.S...
(RIP) in the green fence at Ranger Training Detachment. After completing RIP Sommer was sent to Fort Lewis Washington to the 1st Platoon (Madslashers), Charlie Company, 2nd battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Sommer was at the unit for less than three weeks before he left his girlfriend and newborn son and was shipped to Baghdad Iraq, where he remained until September 2004.
Emergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
courses. After spending six months in the United States, Sommer was again deployed with 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, overseas, this time to Bagram Afghanistan.
After Sommer returned from Afghanistan in September 2005, he was sent to the United States Army Ranger School. Sommer spent nearly seven months completing the highly prestigious military leadership school, and although he had to restart the school twice, Sommer managed to complete the school on April 7, 2006.
After attending Ranger School, court documents assert that Sommer began recruiting and training several members of his unit and two civilians for what was called a robbery with "military style precision and planning." After the robbery, Sommer was arrested and detained in the North Fraser Pretrial Centre where other prisoners such as Rakesh Saxena
Rakesh Saxena
Rakesh Saxena is an Indian financier and trader in the derivatives marketplace. On October 29, 2009, he was deported to Thailand after fighting the longest extradition battle in Canadian history, which lasted 13 years. He is accused of embezzlement in 1994-1995...
and Robert William Pickton where also held. Sommer was released on bail in September 2006, and has been on house arrest in Canada for the last several months.
House arrest in Canada
Sommer was under house arrest at his home in Peachland, British ColumbiaPeachland, British Columbia
Peachland is a district municipality of approximately 5000 residents in the Okanagan Valley, on the west side of Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1899 by John Moore Robinson, although the region had long been home to the Okanagan people...
, while waiting for an extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
hearing. Sommer was released on bail September 17, 2006 after a short hearing. During the hearing Sommer's lawyer argued successfully that Sommer was a resident of Canada (Even in light of his three year assignment to the United States military) and that his involvement with the United States military was, "like being a professional athlete, traveling and operating abroad." With the success of this argument, Chief Justice Dohm placed the Onus on the crown, who failed to prove valid reason for his incarceration pending his extradition hearing. He eventually agreed to return to the United States and plead guilty.
Media attention
Sommer received significant media attention in 2006 after revealing his robbery role in an interview with Seattle WeeklySeattle Weekly
Seattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...
. He was interviewed by a variety of television, radio and print outlets, including but not limited to: National Public Radio (US)
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, The National Post (Canada)
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
, Rolling Stone Magazine (US)
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, the Seattle Times and the New York Times. This attention stemmed from his Ranger background, his assertion that the AK-47 assault rifles used in the robbery were smuggled back from Iraq, and his charge that his alleged involvement, if proven, was actually an effort to draw public attention to his allegations that Task Force 6-26
Task Force 6-26
Task Force 6–26 is a United States Joint military/Government Agency unit; originally set-up to find "High Value Targets" in Iraq in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This Special Operation unit is very similar to Task Force 121 which was created to capture Saddam Hussein and high rank...
, a unit he was assigned to during his time overseas, was actively involved in war crimes. These accounts confirmed that United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM)
United States Special Operations Command
The United States Special Operations Command is the Unified Combatant Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps of the United States Armed Forces. The command is part of the Department of Defense...
has been interacting with him, and a portion of a recorded call was played on National Public Radio in which a SOCOM officer admits that officers of the rank of Brigadier General and above had been briefed and were concerned. However, in December 2006, the Seattle Times reported that the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the US Army released a statement alleging that Sommer's war crimes allegations were investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. It is however interesting to note that the calls between Sommer and SOCOM, in which the officer states the commands interest, occur after the CID statement was released.
Political defense
The strategy behind Sommer's extradition fight asserts that if he was involved in the robbery, the robbery was a form of political protest to draw attention to the Task Force 6-26 war crimes allegations. The belief was that Canadian authorities would not extradite Sommer for what his defense claimed is a "political" crime. U.S. attorneys arguing for Sommer's extradition claimed there was no political motive for the robbery. Rather, the money stolen in the robbery was intended to create a motorcycle gang that would rival the motorcycle gangs controlling crime in the American Pacific NorthwestPacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
and Canadian British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, primarily the Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
. Sommer contended however that the US had an ulterior motive in promoting the organized crime element of their story, claiming that the accusations may be an attempt to elicit interest in him by the Hells Angels.