Heavily armed Troy Hill man allegedly obsessed with Nazis held on federal weapons charges
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A Troy Hill man with an alleged obsession with Nazis and mass shootings will remain in federal prison while he awaits trial on weapons charges, a judge ruled Friday.
Dennis A. Riggs, 50, was arrested by FBI agents about 6 a.m. Wednesday when authorities served a search warrant on his Hatteras Street home. Agents did not describe what prompted the search warrant, saying only that it was part of “an ongoing investigation,” according to the criminal complaint.
A search of Riggs’s home turned up a .223-caliber AR-15 style rifle, according to the complaint.
Riggs told investigators he knew he could not possess firearms because he’s a felon. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 1994 to aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. He also admitted that he asked a romantic partner to buy the gun for him.
The pair went together in September 2018 to Ace Sporting Goods in Washington, and Riggs’s partner bought the rifle, according to the complaint.
At a detention hearing in U.S. District Court on Friday, agents said a search of Riggs’s phone turned up photos of Riggs wearing Nazi apparel, giving Nazi salutes and loading and unloading an AR-15-style rifle, federal officials said.
Authorities said they also found a video of the 2010 New Zealand mosque shootings that killed 51, and a photo of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine churchgoers in 2015 at a church in Charleston because he wanted to start a race war.
The photo of Roof included his contact information in federal prison, authorities said. In Riggs’s home, agents said, they found posters of Hitler and other Nazis, “hundreds of bottles of liquor and alcohol,” and other weapons, knives and daggers.
“Riggs’s Nazi videos, photos and paraphernalia clearly show his obsession with hate-based violence,” U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said in a statement. “His cache of firearms clearly shows his capability to act on that obsession.”
Along with the AR-15-style rifle in Riggs’s home, federal agents also found a .22-caliber Ruger revolver in a dining room closet, a Harrington & Richardson shotgun in a different closet, a .38-special revolver in a nightstand, a .38-caliber Colt revolver in a dresser, and a .32-caliber revolver in a desk drawer.
The revolver found in the desk was loaded with the hammer cocked, according to the complaint. They found another Harrington & Richardson shotgun in a closet, as well as “multiple rounds” of ammunition.
Six of the seven guns they found were loaded, agents said.
Riggs’s next court date has not yet been set.