The gunman who killed a security guard inside the lobby of a Concord psychiatric hospital in 2023 had previously expressed delusional beliefs and was reluctant to take psychotropic medications, raising the concerns of at least one medical expert that he was not receiving appropriate care.
Those details are contained in a set of previously sealed court records that a judge is making public following a 14-month legal challenge by New Hampshire Public Radio. NHPR sought those records shortly after John Madore opened fire inside New Hampshire Hospital in November 2023, killing former Franklin Police Chief Bradley Haas who worked as a guard at the hospital.
The documents — including two court-ordered competency evaluations stemming from a 2016 standoff Madore had with police at a Strafford home — paint a complex picture of a man with emerging psychological issues and a mistrust of the police. They also show that after a nine-month stint as a patient in New Hampshire Hospital, a secure psychiatric facility, Madore was released into the community with a requirement that he engage in treatment for two years.
In January 2024, shortly after the hospital shooting, NHPR filed a petition to unseal court records related to the 2016 standoff involving Madore, to learn more about his previous interactions with the criminal justice and mental health systems in the state.
A superior court judge followed a process used in New Hampshire since the early 1990s that permits attorneys to review each court record individually, in order to determine whether it was in the public’s interest to release those records, in whole or in part.
Madore’s surviving family members, as well as the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and county prosecutors, were parties to the case. Ultimately, the judge ordered the release of the records, with redactions, in late April 2025.
The competency evaluations are heavily redacted and don’t reveal any specific diagnosis for Madore, but do show he was suffering from bouts of psychosis in 2016 and 2017. A court-appointed examiner warned that without proper treatment, Madore posed a danger to himself and others. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office disclosed in its own detailed review of the hospital shooting that Madore was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
The newly released court records shed little light on what led him to storm into New Hampshire Hospital nearly seven years after his release, and begin shooting.
In the days following that shooting, media outlets, including NHPR, reported on the 2016 standoff involving Madore. After allegedly assaulting his mother and sister, Madore barricaded himself in a bedroom and, according to an affidavit, told officers he had firearms and that “this was not going to end well.”
Following his arrest, Madore underwent two court-mandated psychiatric evaluations — in July 2016, and then a follow-up evaluation in August 2017. At the time of his second evaluation, he was on conditional release from the hospital and living in an apartment in Concord.
However, according to the evaluations, which were both performed by the same state forensic examiner, Madore was “not being optimally treated” during this period. Madore expressed a reluctance to taking anti-psychotic medications, something the examiner noted would increase his “risk for dangerousness.”
“With regard to his current legal situation, Mr. Madore demonstrated continued suspicious and seemingly delusional beliefs about the alleged incident and the proceedings against him,” the report states.
It isn’t clear if Madore’s treatment plan was ever modified.
Madore was ultimately found incompetent to stand trial, prompting prosecutors to drop the charges following the standoff.
A complex case
The end of Madore’s criminal case following the armed standoff meant his previously imposed bail conditions — including an order that he participate in mental health treatment — were no longer enforceable.
In June 2019, New Hampshire Hospital’s coordination of his outpatient mental health treatment was set to expire, according to court records. It isn’t clear what, if any, support or treatment Madore may have received after this period.
NHPR spoke with mental health experts who noted that these types of situations can be complex for both relatives and community mental health providers. Despite his past history of violence, Madore no longer presented an imminent threat to himself or others, meaning he couldn’t be mandated to receive care. And yet, his past treatment providers warned that without proper treatment, he could backslide.
Some states and municipalities have programs aimed at assisting people who have been found incompetent to stand trial, known as restoration programs. But the creation of a pilot program in New Hampshire that had bipartisan backing was voted down last week by a New Hampshire Senate committee, citing budget constraints.
The Attorney General’s report following the 2023 shooting at New Hampshire Hospital provides some details about Madore’s life and whereabouts following the end of his criminal case. According to interviews with Madore’s father and sister, he lived in several hotels and other residences, and for a period, moved back in with his mother.
Madore’s father told investigators that his son had “animosity” toward the hospital and had previously expressed “paranoid ideations that the providers at the hospital were trying to harvest his organs, which he continued to periodically discuss even after his discharge.”
There is little information in the report, or in the newly unsealed court records, about any psychiatric care Madore may have been receiving in recent years.
There are few other publicly available details about his life until the morning of Nov. 17, 2023, when police say Madore checked out of a Concord motel and rented a U-Haul truck. That afternoon, he entered the lobby of New Hampshire Hospital and immediately opened fire with a pistol, striking Haas, who was stationed at a metal detector and unarmed. Madore then continued to fire at windows and locked doors inside the empty lobby before he was ultimately shot and killed by a state trooper.
The state initially declined to release surveillance footage from inside the lobby — a break in practice from other officer-involved shootings. The New Hampshire Department of Justice did ultimately provide NHPR with partial video footage in response to a right-to-know request, which corroborated the state’s narrative of the shooting.
Authorities found additional weapons, tactical gear and ammunition in the back of Madore’s rented truck.
At the time, Madore was prohibited from possessing or buying guns under federal law because of his 2016 involuntary admission to New Hampshire Hospital. But due to what some gun safety advocates consider a glaring loophole in state policies, New Hampshire is one of only a handful of states that doesn’t share involuntary commitment information with the FBI.
That meant when Madore purchased the gun he used to kill Haas from a Barrington gun dealer in 2020, his name did not raise any red flags during a background check.
In the wake of the killing of Haas, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s background check system that would have shared certain records with the FBI, and created a process for the restoration of gun rights for those who recover. But that legislation failed to find support among top Republicans in the state Senate in 2024. Earlier this year, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne led his chamber in tabling a similar measure that also was backed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
In the wake of the 2023 shooting, New Hampshire Hospital upgraded its security features, including installing new doors, and hiring armed guards to protect the entryway during visiting hours. But the state has so far failed to complete other recommendations for increasing security at other government buildings.
