David Gilbert (activist) - Brinks Robbery

Brinks Robbery

In the late 1970s or early 1980s Gilbert and other white activists took the name RATF (Revolutionary Armed Task Force), declaring their solidarity with the Black Liberation Army (BLA). On October 20, 1981, the RATF participated along with several members of the BLA in an attempt to rob a Brinks armored car at the Nanuet Mall, near Nyack, New York. While Gilbert and Boudin waited in a U-Haul truck in a nearby parking lot, armed BLA members took another vehicle to the mall, where a Brinks truck was making a delivery. They confronted the guards and a shoot out ensued, wounding guard Joe Trombino after he let off one shot and killing his co-worker, Peter Paige. The robbers then took $1.6 million in cash and sped off to transfer into the waiting U-Haul. The truck was soon stopped by a police roadblock. Gilbert and Boudin surrendered but when the officers tried to search the back of the vehicle BLA members emerged shooting. Two police officers, Waverly L. Brown and Edward J. O'Grady, died in the shootout. Gilbert fled the scene with other RATF and BLA members but was caught by police that day. He was tried, and sentenced in 1983 to 75 years for three counts of felony murder. His extremely long sentence for participating in this action (especially when compared to Kathy Boudin, whose guilty plea earned her 20-years-to-life, from which she was paroled on 20 August 2003 and released 17 September 2003) may be due to his decision not to participate in his trial, not recognizing the authority of the state to try him. Gilbert has admitted that his participating in the Brinks robbery was wrong and apologized for his role in the "tragic loss of life" on that day. He does not deny his role in the robbery and subsequent murders.