Maine man who threatened to 'shoot up' Portsmouth High sentenced
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May 14—A Maine man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to three years in prison for an online threat he made to Portsmouth High School last year and a related firearm charge, federal prosecutors announced.
Kyle Hendrickson, 26, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Concord by Judge Samantha Elliott to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Jane Young said in a news release. A restitution hearing has been scheduled for August 12.
In December, Hendrickson pleaded guilty to one count of interstate threatening communications and one count of possessing a firearm in a school zone.
"The defendant's threat to 'shoot up' Portsmouth High School sent a terrifying chill throughout the Portsmouth community," Young said in a statement. "I commend the FBI, the Portsmouth Police Department, the Portland Maine Police Department, the ATF, and all of our other law enforcement partners who did an excellent job in quickly locating and arresting Mr. Hendrickson to mitigate the threat and allow students to return to school.
"Threats to commit violence have no place in our society and those who make such threats will swiftly be brought to justice."
Hendrickson posted a video to his SnapChat account on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, showing him with a handgun while in a vehicle outside Portsmouth High School. The video includes a text overlay that reads "imma shoot up the school."
School surveillance footage placed Hendrickson's vehicle outside the high school at the time of the video, federal prosecutors said. Law enforcement later recovered an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, camouflage body armor, a handgun holster, a red-dot sight and numerous rounds of ammunition from Hendrickson's vehicle.
The handgun that Hendrickson used in the SnapChat video was also recovered near a motel where Hendrickson had stayed in Maine the night of April 12, 2023.
