Three brothers arrested in credit union robbery
Three brothers are charged with committing the Nov. 28 armed robbery of the Safeway Federal Credit Union in northeast Spokane.
Dustin Rockstrom, 24, Gregory Rockstrom, 21, and their half-brother, Brad Rockstrom, 24, were arrested Wednesday when FBI agents and Spokane police officers served arrest and search warrants at 6010 and 6014 N. Nettleton and 906 E. Rich.
FBI agents reviewed photos on personal pages at MySpace.com to help identify the suspects, according to court documents unsealed after the arrests.
The documents also disclose that $9,468 was taken by three men with bandanas over their faces. FBI agents declined to say if any money was recovered during the arrests.
The suspected getaway car was crashed into a telephone pole not far from the credit union at 529 E. North Foothills Drive, the court documents say. Evidence in the car, including partial fingerprints, linked the suspects to the robbery, documents say.
The car was registered to Brad Rockstrom’s sister, who was at work at the time of the robbery, the documents say. She is not charged.
Two days after the robbery, FBI agents in Kalispell, Mont., were told that the suspects called their mother, who works at an RV park, telling her they “screwed up” and were heading for Montana.
The woman “was so distraught by what she heard from her sons that she went outside into the front yard of the RV store and vomited,” the court documents say.
She later told FBI agents that her sons, Greg and Dustin, “had acquired a large sum of money from some type of illegal activity.”
The suspects appeared together Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Kimball said the charges allege the crime involved “force, violence and intimidation” and carries a possible maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Imbrogno ordered the three held without bond until a bail hearing, which she scheduled for Monday.
The judge didn’t schedule a companion hearing to determine if there is probable cause to formally charge the trio with armed robbery of a federally insured credit union. That is expected to be moot next week when the case is presented to a grand jury where prosecutors will request indictments.