Aggravated robbery is a felony in the first degree.
Rivers was arrested Thursday by Miami Twp. police after a bank robbery at US Bank inside a Meijer store on Wilmington Pike in Kettering. Fairborn police on Tuesday identified Rivers as a person of interest, and law enforcement agencies have been searching for him since. No formal charges have been filed against Rivers in the Kettering robbery, but Kettering Police told the Dayton Daily News Friday that Rivers is the suspect.
However, he is facing charges for the Greene County robberies.
Fairborn police began their investigation into the Monday robbery when they were called to the US Bank on West Main Street. The bank teller told police that a man approached her and handed her a note.
“The note read ‘give me some money couple of stacks of hundreds and 50s I have a gun,’” an affidavit filed in the case says. “The suspect did not show any weapon. (The teller) handed approximately $4,000 to the suspect left the bank. The suspect left the note behind.”
There was video footage of the incident, the affidavit says, and a man appearing to be Rivers can be seen.
“(A police captain) showed me an alert he had received about William Anthony Rivers being released from prison in November 2020 for robbing the same bank,” an affidavit says. “In that bank robbery, William handed the teller a note and the robbery occurred in the same fashion as this robbery. The build and appearance of the suspect matches that of Rivers.”
The affidavit also says that Police Chief Terry Bennington confirmed it was Rivers as he is “very familiar with him.” Rivers’ former parole officer also confirmed that it was Rivers in the video, the court document says.
“She further advised me that he had gone AWOL from a halfway house in Dayton on Friday, March 12, 2021.″
Police spoke to people at the halfway house, and they also confirmed that it was Rivers in the video, the affidavit says.
Then on Tuesday, Beavercreek police began an investigation into a robbery that took place at the US Bank on Dayton Xenia Road. A court affidavit says a suspect handed a bank teller a note with the same wording and he got away with $5,150.
“Security footage from US Bank in Beavercreek … was able to be reviewed by Beavercreek police detectives. Fairborn police detectives were also were investigating a robbery from US Bank in Fairborn … with no suspect apprehended at the time.”
Beavercreek police received a photo of Rivers and the affidavit says he matches the description of the bank robbery suspect and that that they both wore the same clothing.
Rivers remains held in the Greene County Jail.
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