Portsmouth school threat suspect had AR-15, more weapons, feds allege

PORTSMOUTH — Kyle Hendrickson, 25, the man arrested Thursday following an alleged threat to "shoot up" Portsmouth High School, was in possession of multiple firearms, including an AR-15 rifle, according to a federal prosecutor.

Jane Young, U.S. attorney in New Hampshire, on Friday announced Hendrickson is facing a federal charge of "transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure the person of another."

Hendrickson allegedly posted a video on Snapchat of himself with a gun seated in a vehicle outside Portsmouth High School. He said, “Imma gonna shoot up the school,” in the video, according to police.  The federal charge follows his initial arrest on a charge of criminal threatening with a firearm, a Class B felony.

Details of the investigation emerged as communities in Portsmouth and Rochester, where a bomb threat Friday led the middle school to close, processed the disturbing events.

Authorities allege they found body armor, ammunition, along with firearms

Following Hendrickson's arrest Thursday in Portland, Maine, Young said, a search warrant of the vehicle, a 2014 Ford Explorer, resulted in seizing multiple weapons.

According to court documents, the items found in the SUV were a black outside waist handgun holster, a Kittery Trading Post bag with four boxes of assorted ammunition, a Sig Romeo 7 red dot sight for a modern sporting rifle, six buckshot shotgun rounds and a box of 22 caliber rim fire ammunition. In the back trunk, they found camouflage body armor, a box of 50 rounds of 40 caliber Smith & Wesson ammunition, a box of five shotgun rounds, an unloaded Chiappa Firearms shotgun and an unloaded Radical 5.56 RG15 assault rifle.

In the center console of the car, police said they recovered a 556 magazine and 13 rounds of 40-caliber Smith & Wesson ammunition within a handgun magazine.

Another local school closure: Rochester Middle School closed Friday due to bomb threat

The federal charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 if there is a guilty finding, according to Young.

Hendrickson allegedly told prosecutors the Snapchat video was 'a joke'

According to a police affidavit, the FBI's National Threat Operations Section Social Media Exploitation Team received information from Snapchat at 3:34 p.m. on April 12 regarding the Portsmouth school shooting threat posted by the account “khenz187” belonging to Hendrickson.

The short video showed a male sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle, holding a handgun with his right hand and filming with his left. The video zooms in on a school sign through the car window that clearly states Portsmouth High School and then the man is seen waving a pistol at another male in the car, according to the affidavit.

Text over the video stated "imma shoot up the school."

Portsmouth police, according to the affidavit, confirmed via school security video that at 11:10 a.m. on April 12, a white SUV was parked in the area in front of the school as depicted in the Snapchat video.

Portsmouth police obtained a state search warrant for the Snapchat account and saw the video was sent to a number of other users, the affidavit states. They were also able to track down the friend who was seen in the video with Hendrickson.

The friend, according to the affidavit, told police that he went along for the ride with Hendrickson to drop off Hendrickson's mother at Portsmouth High School.

Once she left, Hendrickson allegedly told the friend that he was going to "film an awesome video," according to the affidavit. The friend told police that he was uncomfortable with Hendrickson brandishing the handgun, but that he didn't believe that he posed a threat to the school or that the video was shared.

Police also interviewed Hendrickson's mother, who reported that she received a message from Hendrickson stating that he was in trouble and that he had made a threat.

Police, according to the affidavit, located Hendrickson's white SUV thanks to a post he made on Facebook on the lot of the dealership. After confirming he purchased the vehicle at Lee Auto Mall, police said, they obtained an address to where he was staying.

Never miss a story: Follow local news on the Seacoastonline mobile app or the Fosters.com mobile app

Hendrickson was arrested by Portland police outside his girlfriend's home.

Hendrickson told police his girlfriend could direct them to the gun seen in the Snapchat video. It was found in woods behind the hotel where he was staying, authorities stated. He also told police he had an AR-15 rifle in the back of his SUV, according to the affidavit.

Hendrickson told police the "video was a joke," he has a relative who attends Portsmouth High School and he would never shoot up the school.

"Hendrickson did not elaborate on why or how he created the video," the affidavit states.

The FBI and Portsmouth Police Department led the investigation. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Somersworth Police Department, the Portland (Maine) Police Department and the Berwick (Maine) Police Department provided assistance, Young said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles L. Rombeau is prosecuting the case, Young said. The identity of Hendrickson's attorney was not immediately known.

School threats take toll in Portsmouth, Rochester

Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern pondered Thursday, prior to Hendrickson's arrest, whether the city school system had experienced more disruptions this year due to winter weather or to gun scares.

A father of two, including a kindergarten student, McEachern said, “If you have to imagine your child being gunned down because somebody is threatening a school, your day is not the same. I imagine that’s what everybody is feeling.”

In Rochester on Friday, the city's middle school closure due to a bomb threat rattled the school community. Children on school buses on their way to the middle school were returned home. Later in the morning, Superintendent Kyle Repucci informed the community about the bomb threat, saying police found no evidence it was credible.

“Luckily there was no evidence of a bomb,” Rochester police Capt. Andrew Swanberry said. “But incidents like this take a toll on students, making them fearful and anxious. It impacts parents’ lives. Many of the parents work and an event like this is completely unpredictable. It is an abrupt disruption they need to handle with their kids suddenly staying home. It is tough on the community.”

For police and fire responders, Swanberry said it ties up a lot of personnel who become unable to respond to other calls.

“We will set up a perimeter and a command staff,” he said. “A lot of us respond. We informed state police and they sent out two canine units. Now two of our detectives are actively investigating this.”

Swanberry said police need to respond to every threat.

“We never know, until we investigate and determine the threat is false,” said Swanberry. “But especially, in this current climate, no one can afford to ignore a threat. The exposure to similar events, some real, raises the public awareness. We can’t ever be too careful.”

School Board Vice Chair Sarah Harrington added, "When it comes to the safety of our students and staff, immediate decisions must be made to ensure all safety measures are taken."

Harrington, like officials in Portsmouth, such as School Board Chair Nancy Clayburgh, expressed gratitude to police and all emergency responders for their work and collaborating with school leaders.

Clayburgh said the emotional toll of the threat is significant.

“People are very upset — parents, students, staff, the community. Everyone’s very upset that this came so close to home for us,” she said.

In December, Dover and Portsmouth schools were targeted by a hoax report of an active school shooter, a false report commonly known as swatting. A similar incident unfolded in November across Maine, first reported at Sanford High School.

Portsmouth Police Commission chairperson Stefany Shaheen said, “The bottom line is that in this day and age, we have to take every threat seriously and treat it credibly."

Shaheen reiterated her support for gun laws recently outlined in a guest column published by Seacoastonline and the Portsmouth Herald. She called for a ban on assault weapons, a mandated assault weapon buyback program, a national “red flag” law, background checks for private firearm and gun show sales and a ban on bump stocks.

“The fact is, for far too long, people have approached the threats to public safety and gun violence as if there's nothing we can do, and that’s just not true,” Shaheen said. “There are measures we can take today that are supported by the vast majority of the country to keep our kids safer and keep our schools safer.”

Ian Lenahan and Karen Dandurant contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH school threat suspect had AR-15, feds allege