Man nabbed in '18 Amazon Park standoff pleads guilty to separate explosives charge

Ryan Cortina (Rochester Police photo/2018)

CONCORD - A Somersworth man pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to possession of an unregistered firearm, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Concord.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on Sept. 23, 2019, the Somersworth Police Department received information from a confidential information that Ryan Cortina, 34, possessed destructive devices at his Somersworth residence. The informant further claimed Cortina showed him a "grenade" he had built. Officers applied for a search warrant for Cortina's residence. While executing the warrant on Sept. 27, 2019, officers located five suspected destructive devices in a duffle bag. Further analysis showed that one of the devices was an improvised explosive bomb which therefore should have been registered in accordance with Federal Firearms Registrations
"By possessing an improvised bomb, the defendant placed residents of Somersworth in danger," said U.S. Attorney John J. Farley. "Had the device been detonated, it could have threatened the lives of innocent people. Thanks to the hard work and responsiveness of law enforcement officers, a potential tragedy was averted. This case provides an example of how law enforcement officers are working each day to protect public safety in the Granite State."
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Somersworth Police Department with the assistance of New Hampshire State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra M. Walsh.
The case is part of ATF's Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, which is a federally funded program intended to reduce gun violence through law enforcement training, public education, and aggressive law enforcement efforts to investigate and prosecute gun-related crimes.
Cortina was also the subject of a standoff arrest at Amazon Park in April of 2018.
The nine-hour standoff on April 19, 2018 brought together one of the largest contingents of law enforcement in the Northern Seacoast in recent memory, but Rochester Police press log accounts show it was also one of the most chaotic.
The standoff began a little after 3 p.m. when Cortina, then 30, who was sought for questioning regarding an alleged domestic assault earlier in the day, refused to come out of his mobile home and began barricading his doors and windows with furniture and other items, Rochester Police Chief Jason Thomas, then a captain and press liaison, said a day after the incident. Thomas also said one of the responding officers saw Cortina had a weapon, which intensified the police response.
Within minutes more police arrived and ambulances and firetrucks staged nearby waiting for the go-ahead to tend to any potential victims, but it would be many hours before they would get the "all clear."
Meanwhile, narratives from the police log show dispatchers were told from the person who initially called in the incident indicated Cortina had stated he had his house "rigged with a bomb."
A later dispatch notes "he states he turned on all the propane tanks and will blow the place up," "has been using drugs" and "has lots of knives."
At that point, just minutes into the standoff, police set up a 30-foot perimeter and also called Somersworth PD to ask them to "stop and hold" the suspect if they saw him on their side of the line.
Police then used a bullhorn to urge Cortina out of the house.
A standoff negotiator was then summoned from Durham and police set up a command post at the entrance to the park.
As the suspect then continued to barricade himself further, SWAT team members placed the Bearcat, a heavily fortified SWAT vehicle, in front of the mobile home.
Soon after that, the suspect lighted several firecrackers and threatened to throw firecrackers at responders. He also partially opened a glass door, held a bottle of pills in his hand and tried to converse with police.
Some officers noted he has blood on his arm, and soon after that, an "Immediate Action Plan" was requested to be put in place.
The Police Log narrative then indicates the subject had become more erratic and was trying to converse with officers, who couldn't hear him.
While narratives aren't time-stamped, the last notation referring to the subject, himself, reads, "subject hasn't been seen in a while."
The standoff officially ended around midnight when the Bearcat was used to stave in the entrance of Cortina's mobile home.
After the entrance was breached State Police used a robot from their Explosive Disposal Unit to enter the residence and scan the premises for the suspect, after which police entered and took him into custody without incident.
Cortina was never injured by officers during the standoff, but was in some medical distress when police found him, Thomas said a day after the incident.
Cortina is scheduled to be sentenced on the IED device charge on July 18.