Man who fatally shot security guard at psychiatric hospital was banned from having guns, records say
CONCORD, N.H. — A man who fatally shot a New Hampshire psychiatric hospital guard moments before he was killed by a state police officer was banned from carrying guns, ammunition or other dangerous weapons after a 2016 arrest, court records show.
That’s when police seized an assault rifle and a 9mm handgun from 33-year-old John Madore. Madore, who was arrested in Strafford on charges of assault and reckless endangerment, was later involuntarily committed to New Hampshire Hospital in Concord, according to records. The charges were dismissed in 2017 after a competency evaluation that remains sealed.
The gun ban against Madore was part of bail orders released Wednesday by a judge following a request by the New Hampshire Bulletin.
On Nov. 17, Madore had a 9mm handgun and ammunition when he fatally shot Bradley Haas, a Department of Safety officer working near the hospital lobby entrance, the attorney general’s office said. Madore was fatally shot by a state trooper shortly afterwards.
In addition to the gun, police found an AR-style rifle, a tactical vest and several ammunition magazines in a U-Haul truck in the hospital parking lot that Madore had rented.
These firearms were not the same ones seized in 2016, Michael Garrity, a spokesman for the New Hampshire attorney general’s office, confirmed in a statement late Wednesday. The weapons used in 2016 remain in the custody of Strafford police, he said.
It remains unclear how Madore, who had recently been living in a hotel in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, obtained the weapons found on November 17. If he had tried to buy them, he would have had to record his hospitalization in a mental health facility. when completing a federal firearms application.
Madore was accused in 2016 of strangling his sister, grabbing his mother around the neck and slamming her to the ground because he was angry that they had put the family dog to sleep, according to an affidavit.
When police arrived at their Strafford home, Madore was barricaded in an upstairs bedroom and told them he had firearms and that it wouldn’t end well, the police affidavit said. He eventually surrendered peacefully, police said.
A celebration of life is planned for Nov. 27 for Haas, 63, a former police chief from Franklin, New Hampshire.