A 25-year-old man who posted videos threatening to commit a shooting at Walmart pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Jeremy Rogers, shown in August in Knox County Superior Court in Rockland, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Portland to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He posted videos threatening to commit a shooting at Walmart. At left is Knox County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Fernald. Stephen Betts/The Courier-Gazette
Jeremy Rogers pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Portland to the single charge. Judge George Singal ordered Rogers held until his sentencing hearing.
The charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm carries a maximum prison term of 10 years along with a fine of up to $250,000. Rogers could be placed on supervised release for two years after release from prison.
He was indicted Dec. 13.
Rogers has been in jail since Aug. 22, when he was arrested outside a residence on Mt. Pleasant Street in Rockport by Rockland Police Sgt. Joel Neal. The arrest came moments after Thomaston Police Chief Tim Hoppe had obtained a state arrest warrant against Rogers alleging felony terrorizing with a dangerous weapon, felony terrorizing and felony possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Rogers, who is from Connecticut, was staying at a residence of a family friend in Rockport at the time.
New York state police notified local police that Rogers sent a video via Facebook messenger to a woman in New York showing him wearing a ski mask and holding an AR-15 rifle. In the video, he is quoted as saying “(Expletive), I’m going to Walmart,” according to an affidavit filed in Knox County Court in Rockland.
A second video showed Rogers, without a mask, making disparaging comments about a woman and pointing a gun at his head, according to the affidavit.
Rockport police were alerted because family members said Rogers had recently moved to the town.
The affidavit filed in federal court reveals that Rogers purchased ammunition suitable for use in an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from Walmart in Thomaston on Aug. 10. The FBI statement also detailed additional threats Rogers had made over Facebook.
On Aug. 12, he posted a photograph of the AR-15 and said, “Wanna see my new Wal-Mart killer?”
“I got so bored I bought a bunch of bullets and shotgun shells. I named her Bella,” Rogers stated in the posts, according to the FBI affidavit.
He then commented online that he was trying to figure out what was wrong with one of his guns because it could only fire one shot at a time.
On Aug. 18, he sent a Facebook message to another person showing a photograph of the interior of a Walmart with the comment “Match begins at 2.” Later in the day, he sent a post to another person in which he was wearing a mask and said he was going to Walmart.
Yet another video shows Rogers firing a Glock 17C handgun with a small flashlight attached to it. He then shows himself handling three separate handguns and says, “Man, I’m drowning in pistols, I got the 9mm Makarov, from Russia with love. Let’s go to Austria, get the police Glock, and let’s go over to this … and get out the other Glock.”
A criminal background check on Rogers found he had convictions in 2016 in Connecticut for criminal possession of a firearm and causing risk of injury to a child, according to court records.
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