Ex-Minn. SWAT officer gets 8 years for robbing bank; attorney cited sick daughter and finances

Ex-Minn. SWAT officer gets 8 yrs. for robbing bank

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A former Minneapolis SWAT team member has been sentenced to eight years in prison for robbing a bank at gunpoint earlier this year.

Twenty-nine-year-old Timothy Carson pleaded guilty to two counts stemming from the Jan. 6 armed robbery of the Wells Fargo bank in Apple Valley. He faced a mandatory minimum of seven years in prison.

A prosecutor had asked the judge to sentence Carson to about a decade, saying Carson had traumatized his victims. Carson’s attorney had maintained Carson was stressed out by financial worries and a sick daughter.

Carson also allegedly carried out 12 robberies or attempted robberies in Minneapolis and its suburbs in the three weeks leading up to the bank robbery. Charges in those cases are pending in state court.