Samad B. “Slim” Montgomery, a 19-year-old Black/African American male from Chester, Pennsylvania, was killed in the early morning hours of August 7, 2021, after police were called to the 1200 block of Clover Lane for a report of shots fired. When officers arrived around 5:00 a.m., they found Montgomery on his back outside the open driver’s side door of a gold Lexus. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Early police reporting said he had been shot in the hip, while later accounts described him as suffering several gunshot wounds; the medical examiner determined the death was a homicide by gunshot.
The investigation soon began to take shape around what authorities described as an illegal gun transaction. Investigators said an iPhone XR recovered at the scene became a key piece of evidence. According to the prosecution’s account, that phone had been used to contact Montgomery five times in the half hour before he was shot. Authorities said the communications pointed to a planned meeting involving firearms, and that discussions about gun sales, along with social media material, helped establish a possible motive.
The first major arrest came on January 27, 2022, when a 17-year-old suspect was taken into custody and charged as an adult with criminal homicide and related offenses. After the arrest, police said a search warrant was served at a home on West 5th Street in Chester and on a gray 2005 Ford Escape. During that search, authorities reported finding marijuana and a fully loaded silver-and-black Ruger P95 9mm pistol. The juvenile was denied bail and committed to Aspire Youth Center in Uniontown.
By April 2022, prosecutors identified additional suspects. Hakeem Montes, 18, of Chester, was charged with criminal homicide, first-, second-, and third-degree murder, conspiracy, and firearms offenses. Authorities described him as the third suspect identified in the case and said he had been connected to firearm-sale discussions on the recovered iPhone. At that time, Kahsir Bennett had already been arrested, while Marlon Cooper was still being sought.
Cooper was captured in June 2022 after U.S. Marshals tracked him to Media, Pennsylvania. Federal officials said he was spotted driving on East Baltimore Pike and attempted to flee when officers initiated a traffic stop, but vehicles from the Marshals Fugitive Task Force boxed him in near Manchester and Wallingford Avenue. After his arrest, Cooper faced criminal homicide, first-, second-, and third-degree murder, conspiracy, and firearms offenses in Montgomery’s death.
Online court-related reporting later listed Hakeem Montes, Kahsir Bennett, and Marlon Cooper as the three men charged in connection with Montgomery’s killing, with all three facing murder, conspiracy, and firearms counts. Jury selection was reported to have begun in October 2024. The available online information reviewed describes the case as centered on a planned illegal gun deal that ended with Montgomery shot beside a vehicle on Clover Lane, and it identifies Bennett, Montes, and Cooper as the suspects arrested or charged in the homicide.
