2 Charged With Baseball Bat Assault In Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH, NH — Two city residents were charged with assaulting a man with aluminum baseball bats on Thursday. Rene Leverde, 45, and Joshua Burnett, 41, were arrested on first-degree assault and held with no bail pending arraignment. The victim in the case was transported to the hospital with injuries that are not considered to be life-threatening, according to police.

Police say that around 4 p.m. Thursday, they responded to a home on Wedgewood Road in Gosling Meadows after receiving several 911 calls about an altercation among neighbors. When they arrived, police found the victim who was bleeding from a laceration to his head and had an obvious injury to his arm. Upon further investigation, which included reviewing surveillance video provided by the Portsmouth Housing Authority, police determined that Burnett and Laverde had assaulted the victim with aluminum baseball bats, according to police.

The Portsmouth Fire Department transported the victim to Portsmouth Regional Hospital. Newington Police Department assisted Portsmouth police at the scene.

Burnett and Laverde are each charged with one count of first-degree assault, a Class A felony. They were both held at Rockingham House of Corrections pending arraignment through the Felonies First program.

Anyone with further information about this incident is asked to call the Portsmouth Police Department at 603-610-7619.