| “ | They're not making fun of me anymore, or they're scared I might come back. That's sorta cool, right? | „ |
| ~ Henry's attitude about the murders he committed. |
Henry Semple is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "School Daze". He is a sociopathic teenager who commits a school shooting, killing several of his classmates.
He was portrayed by Timothy Reifsnyder.
Early life[]
A violent sociopath, Henry was kicked out of three private schools for antisocial behavior, and he once broke his younger sister's arm. He was also bullied at school, including an incident in which another student urinated on his art class project. He began collecting firearms and studying school shootings, determined to get back at his tormentors. He told his only friend, a fellow social outcast named Paul, that he was going to kill as many of his classmates as he could. Believing it was a joke, Paul called classmate Kevin Miller and told him to bring his camera to record a "big-ass thing" that was going to happen.
Sure enough, Henry showed up at school the next day heavily armed and wearing a ski mask and opened fire. He killed four students and wounded six others, including one girl whose spinal cord was severed, paralyzing her for life. He then ran back home and disposed of the guns.
"School Daze"[]
NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green investigate the shooting and interview the teachers and surviving students in search of a suspect. After investigating two other disturbed students who both have alibis, they talk to a school guidance counselor who voices her suspicions about Henry, who had been openly talking about killing his classmates. When Henry sends the school an email threatening to come back and "finish what [he] started," they go to Henry's house to arrest him. They take him into custody when he runs and tries to pull a gun on them.
Henry's parents, Bill and Patricia, claim that he suffered brain damage as a child from falling off a horse, but a medical examination shows no such injury. They hire defense attorney Jamie Ross, who had once worked as Manhattan County's Assistant District Attorney alongside Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy, to represent Henry, and she enters an insanity plea on his behalf. McCoy and Ross' successor, Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael, have forensic psychiatrist Dr. Emil Skoda interview Henry, who shows no remorse for what he has done and says that it is "sorta cool" that his classmates are now afraid of him.
Bill and Patricia meet with McCoy and Carmichael, with Ross in tow, to argue for Henry being committed to a psychiatric hospital rather than imprisoned. Bill has a moment of conscience, however, and says that Henry will kill again if he is ever freed. Over Patricia's tearful objections, he tells McCoy and Ross what Henry did to his sister, and later testifies that Henry had told him what he had done, that he wanted to do it again, and that he was afraid he had missed the "biggest jerks" in school when he had shot up the building. Henry is found guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
External links[]
- Henry Semple on the Law & Order Wiki
