The gunman who fatally shot a New Hampshire Hospital security guard last fall obtained the weapon used in that incident after lying about his own mental health history on a federal firearms application, according to a newly released report from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office.
The report, released Thursday, sheds new details on the final days of 33-year-old John Madore’s life before he carried out that shooting, as well as his mental health history, including his time as a patient at New Hampshire Hospital.
According to state investigators, Madore obtained the pistol he used to kill New Hampshire Hospital security guard Bradley Haas from a dealer in Barrington in February 2020. The report includes an image of an ATF form completed by Madore in which he claims — inaccurately — that he had never been committed to a mental institution.
Though the FBI also likely ran a background check on Madore at the time of the purchase, New Hampshire is one of a small handful of states that doesn’t share mental health records with federal law enforcement agents, meaning his past treatment at the state psychiatric hospital wouldn’t have been flagged.
Madore was twice admitted to New Hampshire Hospital: for 13 days in February 2016, and for nine months between May 2016 and March 2017. The new report from the Attorney General discloses for the first time that Madore was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Mental health advocates have cautioned against drawing a link between someone’s mental health diagnosis and violence; the federal agency charged with overseeing mental health has noted that “people with severe mental illness are 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population.”
Madore was first ordered to be treated at the hospital shortly after a 2016 armed standoff at his mother’s home in Strafford. During that incident, according to court records, Madore barricaded himself in a bedroom and told officers “he has firearms and this was not going to end well.”
Madore was ultimately found not competent to stand trial, and the criminal charges were dropped.
In the wake of the New Hampshire Hospital shooting, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers crafted a bill that would have created a system for New Hampshire to share information with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. The measure stalled, however, in the Republican-controlled Senate earlier this year.
The gunman’s final days
According to the attorney general’s report, Madore was unemployed and staying in a hotel in Hampton during the first two weeks of November 2023, relying on his family for money.
On Nov. 16, investigators say Madore checked out of the Magnuson Hotel, took an Uber to Concord and checked into the Holiday Inn on Main Street for a single night. During this period, Madore was texting both his sister and father with regular updates and requests for money, according to the report.
The report also references text messages from Madore to his family around this time that “centered around his decision not to live in temporary assisted living which, in his opinion, would require him to surrender his ‘constitutional rights’ and ‘abandon his weapons.’”
After leaving the Holiday Inn, Madore rented a U-Haul box truck, which he then drove to Manchester, according to the report. Investigators say he attempted to check into another hotel but did not have the money to do so. He then drove back to Concord, making no additional stops, according to cell phone tracking information.
At around 3:38 p.m., Madore pulled the U-Haul into the parking lot of New Hampshire Hospital, and left the motor running as he then entered the lobby of the building, where he opened fire almost immediately and killed Haas. Investigators say he also repeatedly fired at hospital personnel, who were stationed behind bulletproof glass.
A dispatcher immediately alerted staff to an “active shooter.” As Madore attempted to change the magazine of his pistol, New Hampshire State Trooper Nathan Sleight entered the lobby from an adjacent office, and ordered Madore to drop his gun, according to the report. Sleight then opened fire, killing Madore. Prosecutors determined that Sleight was legally justified in his use of force.
According to the report, an autopsy found Madore died from 11 gunshot wounds. At the time of the incident, he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.
Following the shooting, a bomb squad determined there were no explosives inside the rented truck. Investigators did find clothing and food, as well as “an additional firearm (AR-15 style rifle), multiple firearm magazines, military manuals, and military style equipment.”
The Attorney General’s office told NHPR the AR-15 style rifle was purchased in 2021 from the same Barrington gun dealer where Madore previously purchased the pistol he used in the shooting.
While the Attorney General’s office customarily releases surveillance and body cam footage as part of its reviews of officer-involved shootings, prosecutors said they would not release the videos from inside the hospital’s lobby on Thursday. They declined to explain why.
The report does not confirm a possible motive for the shooting, but it cites one interview with a New Hampshire Hospital patient who entered the lobby after seeing Madore in the parking lot, unaware of what was happening. That patient told state officials they “heard Madore state something to the effect of ‘I hate this place,’” after he had been shot and was on the ground in the lobby.
