SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- Four men pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges stemming from the March 13 robbery of an armored car, the subsequent highway chase and the shooting of a Shreveport police officer.
Larry Thompson Sr., 59 of Benton; Anthony Gentry, 24, and Nicholas Gentry, 21, both of Greenwood; and Tung Nguyen, 30, of Arlington, Texas, each pleaded guilty to one count of armed bank robbery and one count of use of firearms during a crime of violence.
Thompson’s son, Larry Thompson Jr., 39, of Shreveport, had pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this month.
The armored car guards were making a delivery to a Hibernia National Bank in Shreveport on March 13 when they were confronted with four men wearing ski masks and armed with rifles and handguns. The men handcuffed the guards, put about $780,000 in cash into a Chevrolet Suburban and drove off with the elder Thompson at the wheel.
Prosecutors said the thieves later set fire to the Suburban and got into a van driven by the younger Thompson, who sped off toward Bossier City.
Cpl. Mark Sharbono, a 13-year Shreveport police veteran, chased the robbers on Interstate 220 as one of the robbers fired at him with a semi-automatic rifle. Sharbono’s car was riddled with bullets, and he pulled over to the shoulder and radioed for help after being shot in the right forearm.
Each of the defendants who pleaded guilty Wednesday could be sentenced to up to 25 years on the robbery charge and plus at least 10 years for the weapons charge, which would be served after the robbery sentence is completed, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Donald Washington.
Wednesday’s guilty pleas leave one defendant in the case, Regan Gatti, 25, of Bossier City, whose trial is set for Sept. 22.