Robert-Michael A. Cash, a 31-year-old Black man from Dayton, Ohio, known to friends and family as “SUV,” was killed on Sunday, July 30, 2023.
The incident unfolded in the early morning hours at a BP gas station at the corner of South Smithville Road and Wilmington Avenue in Kettering, Ohio. According to police, Cash had been with an acquaintance, 28-year-old Peter Betts Jr. of Bellbrook, the night before. At some point, Betts came into possession of Cash’s phone.
The two men arranged to meet at the gas station so Betts could return it. An argument broke out between them shortly after they arrived. The confrontation escalated, and Betts allegedly produced a rifle and shot Cash multiple times.
Police and medics were dispatched to the gas station shortly after 6 a.m. and found Cash, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Betts fled in a vehicle but later called 911 himself. In the call, he told a dispatcher, "I tried to give him his phone, we got into an altercation," and claimed that Cash had pulled a gun on him.
Investigators used license plate readers to track Betts’s movements. They determined that he had switched cars in Bellbrook before he was located and arrested in Jefferson Township by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Following his arrest, Peter Betts Jr. was booked into the Kettering City Jail on preliminary charges of aggravated murder.
At the time, the Montgomery County Coroner's Office was still investigating the official cause and manner of death. Police officials noted that the shooting was the second homicide of the year in Kettering. A memorial service for Robert-Michael Cash was held on August 16, 2023, at a funeral home in Dayton. As of late July 2023, Betts was in custody facing charges.
