Suspect had robbed same bank before
A man who was arrested Thursday in connection to several area bank robberies was previously imprisoned for robbing the same Fair- born bank that was robbed earlier this week, according to court documents.
William Anthony Rivers, 62, is charged in Fairborn Municipal Court with two counts of aggravated robbery. He is accused of robbing the US Bank on Monday in Fairborn and robbing the Beavercreek US Bank on Tuesday.
Aggravated robbery is a felony in the first degree.
Rivers was arrested Thurs- day after a bank robbery in Kettering near Miami Twp. Fairborn police on Tuesday identified Rivers as a person of inter- est, 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 cha r ges for the Greene County robberies.
Fa i rborn p olice were called Monday 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, who left the bank. The suspect left the note behind.”
There was video footage of the incident, the affidavit says, and a man appear- ing 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, as did people at a halfway house Rivers had gone AWOL from in March 12.
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.
Beavercreek police received a photo of Rivers and the affidavit says he matches the description of the bank robbery suspect and that they both wore the same clothing.