Albany, GA: Police officer kills woman

Pete Skiba
Staff writer

Sunday, October 25, 2009


ALBANY - A woman carrying a .357 Magnum pistol in her right hand and knife in her left was shot dead by an Albany Police Department Officer at about 8 p.m. Friday, according to her roommate.

"She kept saying she was going to kill me," Eddie Anderson said about his live-in girlfriend Sarah Riggins. "When the police got here I went out to talk to them. I didn't know she was coming out of the door behind me. The officer told her to drop the weapons. I don't know if she fired, but I saw the blue smoke and fire from his gun."

Riggins, 49, collapsed from the gunshot to the throat and died, Anderson said. His .357 Magnum was found under her body and has been taken by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as evidence, he added.

"That officer was really upset," Anderson said. "I didn't see him crying, but he was upset. They took him off."

Police Chief John Proctor declined to name the officer involved in the shooting. He did confirm that Riggins had a pistol and a knife and approached the officer.

"He is quite upset. He is torn up right now," Proctor said. "I spoke with him last night and prayed with him last night. GBI is the lead investigators on the case. We are not investigating it ourselves. The officer is on administrative leave right now until further notice with pay. That is all the preliminary information I have."

No one was at the bureau offices in Sylvester or Atlanta who could talk about the case Saturday.

"We do express sympathy to the family of this lady because any human life that is lost is a value lost to us all," Proctor said. "We believe in that."

Anderson called the police because Riggins had taken his gun, had the lock taken off and said she was going to kill him more than a half-dozen times.

"I told her I called the police and she said she would kill the police and me," Anderson said. "She was drinking. She would do drugs and drink. She would stay with me until she got her check then she'd take off drinking and then the money would go and she'd be back."

Their relationship had a history of Riggins drinking and turning violent, Anderson said. She had gotten drunk many times before and turned violent, he added.

"She had mental problems, she was drinking and on drugs," Anderson said. "It is still so sad, so sad that it happened that way, but she said she was going to kill me."