Portsmouth High School shooting threat suspect pleads guilty; faces time in prison, fines

CONCORD — Portsmouth High School shooting threat suspect Kyle Hendrickson will be sentenced to prison in March after pleading guilty on Monday in federal court.

The 25-year-old formally entered his guilty plea on two charges connected to the April 12, 2023 Snapchat video he took outside the city high school. Taken with the message, “imma gonna shoot up the school,” the video shows him holding up a Smith & Wesson SD40 VE handgun and pointing it at a passenger next to him, with the Portsmouth High School sign visible in the background, according to investigators. 

No formal plea has been extended to the defendant, according to his attorney, Murdoch Walker II, and the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Rombeau.

Hendrickson, a Berwick, Maine resident, was shackled at the ankles Monday and dressed in a Strafford County jail jumpsuit as he pleaded guilty before Judge Samantha Elliot. He will be sentenced on March 15, 2024 in Concord on two federal charges- interstate threatening communication and possessing a firearm in a school zone. 

Hendrickson did not give extended formal remarks, aside from describing his education experience and work history as a former warehouse employee and furniture delivery driver. He additionally reported he is not currently seeking mental health treatment, attended two substance abuse rehabilitation programs as a teenager, and will graduate from the Strafford County Department of Corrections therapeutic community program in about two weeks’ time. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified by Snapchat of Hendrickson’s video the day he took it. Federal authorities relayed the tip to Portsmouth police, who consulted the city school district. SAU 52 closed all Portsmouth schools on April 13 as Hendrickson was still at-large. 

Hendrickson was then arrested the afternoon of April 13 by police in Portland, Maine outside an apartment building. He told authorities he disposed of the handgun in the woods behind a Freeport, Maine hotel, and that there was another firearm located under a mattress in the Portland apartment building. 

Hendrickson was alleged to have told authorities that the video was meant to be a joke upon his arrest. Investigators later obtained a warrant for his 2014 Ford Explorer and seized an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, camouflage body armor, a handgun holster, a red-dot sight and several rounds of ammunition.

Asked by Elliot Monday if all the findings of fact in the case were true, Hendrickson replied: “Yes, your honor.”

The two charges each carry a maximum prison term of five years, three years of supervised release and upwards of a $250,000 fine. 

“I find that Mr. Hendrickson’s plea of guilty is a basis in fact,” Elliot said during the Monday change of plea proceeding.

According to Rombeau, the prosecutor, the defendant filed a property waiver regarding his weapons on Monday morning. Discretionary restitution for the Portsmouth school district is possible, he added, but a decision has not been finalized. 

“There are certainly no numbers I have here for you today, your honor,” Rombeau said. 

The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act signed into law in 1990 banned individuals from knowingly possessing a firearm in a school zone, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In New Hampshire, there is no state law preventing people who are not students from possessing a firearm in a school zone.

Walker, Hendrickson's lawyer, declined to comment on the case outside the courtroom following Monday’s change of plea hearing. 

Hendrickson agreed to the change of plea on Nov. 17. A trial in his case was set to commence on Tuesday prior to his change of plea.