Shannon Richardson is making headlines far away from Hollywood. The actress, who has appeared on Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries, was arrested in Arkansas on Friday, June 7 in connection to ricin-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns in May, NBC News reports.
A resident of New Boston, Tex., Richardson, whose full name is Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson, had called the FBI claiming that her husband, Army veteran Nathaniel Richardson, had sent the letters containing the fatal toxin; investigators eventually concluded that she had sent dangerous packages herself.
All postmarked May 20, the letters contained a frightening missive decrying gun control measures. "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns," the message sent to Bloomberg read. "Anyone who wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God given right and I will exercise that right till the day I die."
The letters to Obama and Bloomberg were intercepted during a routine mail screenings, while the letter to the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mark Glaze, was opened.
Charges against Richardson, a mother of five, will be filed Friday afternoon.
