Man sentenced for firing shot, holding tellers at gunpoint in Raleigh bank robbery
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- Federal judge sentenced Christopher Antonio Gilmore to 15 years for a 2025 bank robbery.
- Gilmore fired a shot in the bank, held tellers at gunpoint and took $20,000.
- Raleigh police arrested him minutes later; records show prior convictions.
A federal judge has sentenced the man responsible for a 2025 Raleigh bank robbery to 15 years in prison, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced Friday.
Christopher Antonio Gilmore, 34, pleaded guilty on Feb. 26 to three charges in the March 2025 robbery of First Citizens Bank in Raleigh, court records show. Gilmore will serve 10 years for discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and five years for armed bank robbery and possession of a stolen firearm.
On March 24, 2025, Gilmore entered the bank, wearing sunglasses and a mask, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a Friday statement. He fired a bullet toward the bank manager’s office while she was inside, but it struck a cabinet just outside the office before it could hit her.
Gilmore held two bank tellers at gunpoint and demanded they put money in his backpack, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.
The tellers put $20,000 and a GPS tracker in his backpack. Gilmore ordered the tellers to lie down behind the counter, yelling “Everybody get in the back! Heads down or I’ll start shooting again!”
Gilmore brandished his gun at the bank manager, demanding she get on the floor with the tellers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote. But unbeknownst to Gilmore, another employee was in the break room calling 911.
Gilmore fled to a tire shop where Raleigh Police Department officers took him into custody within minutes of him leaving First Citizens Bank, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.
Prior to the 2025 charges, Gilmore was previously convicted for the following, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
- Attempted identity theft in 2015
- Breaking and entering, larceny in 2019
- Assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, discharging a weapon into an occupied property, possession of a firearm by a felon in 2023
“The violent nature of Mr. Gilmore’s actions are reprehensible,” FBI Special Agent Reid Davis, who is in charge of North Carolina, said. “To barge into a bank where people are conducting business or accessing their own hard-earned money and endanger their lives is ruthless, reckless, and justifies a long federal prison sentence.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2026 at 5:29 PM.
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