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Abbotsford woman charged after police find loaded gun in bag at mall

Danielle Rigdon, now facing 11 charges this year, was on house arrest at the time
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Danielle Rigdon of Abbotsford has been arrested and charged for the second time this year.

An Abbotsford woman has been charged for the second time this year after she allegedly carried a loaded gun to Sevenoaks Shopping Centre while under house arrest.

Abbotsford Police Const. Jody Thomas said Danielle Rigdon, 42, was first arrested on Jan. 21, after police investigated an uttering-threats incident.

Thomas said a search of her residence allegedly turned up a loaded gun and ammunition.

Rigdon was subsequently charged with pointing a firearm, assault with a weapon and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.

She appeared in court and was released subject to house arrest and electronic-bracelet monitoring.

Thompson said Rigdon was again arrested on Monday of this week when she left her residence and her electronic bracelet was tracked to Sevenoaks Shopping Centre.

Thompson said that, during the arrest, Rigdon allegedly attempted to turn over a bag to a friend, but the bag was intercepted by officers.

The bag allegedly contained a loaded handgun, drugs and cash, Thompson said.

Rigdon was then charged with eight additional offences – possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of a loaded firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, possession of a controlled substance, and three counts of breaching her conditions.

Thompson said anyone with additional information about these incidents is asked to call the Abbotsford Police Department at 604-859-5225, text 222973 (abbypd) or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

According to court records, Rigdon was sentenced in 2008 to 4.5 years in prison for kidnapping and assaulting a woman and stealing a cellphone.

Court documents indicate that the incident involved a woman being taken from a street in Chilliwack at knifepoint and forced by her assailants to go to two locations, where she was repeatedly beaten and where some of her personal items were stolen.

At one location, the victim was locked in a crawl space beneath the stairs and was taken out on several occasions to be further beaten, the documents state.

The judge in the case found that Rigdon was the main assailant in the incident.

Rigdon later filed a lawsuit against the province and a male jail guard who she said sexually assaulted her while she was in the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre.

The guard ultimately resigned from his job, but was never charged, and the case was discontinued in 2013.



Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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