Suspect in deadly N.H. psychiatric hospital shooting identified by officials Saturday

Law enforcement gathered near New Hampshire Hospital on Friday following a shooting there.Cheryl Senter for The Boston Globe

CONCORD, N.H. — Authorities on Saturday identified the 33-year-old man they said opened fire and gunned down a retired police officer working as a security guard inside a state psychiatric hospital Friday afternoon before he was killed by a state trooper.

John Madore used a 9mm handgun to shoot Bradley Haas, 63, a state Department of Safety officer who had served for nearly 30 years as a Franklin police officer, at New Hampshire Hospital around 3:40 p.m. Friday, officials said during a Saturday morning press conference.

Officials are conducting a homicide investigation into the shooting, New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella said at the press conference.

Formella declined to give a motive for the attack. Officials are still trying to determine whether Madore was acting alone, he said.

“We don’t have any information that would lead us to believe that there’s any threat to the general public at this point stemming from this incident,” Formella said.

At the scene, police located an AR-style rifle, several magazines of ammunition, and a tactical vest inside a U-Haul truck found parked and left running in the hospital’s parking lot at the time of the attack.

Officials said Saturday they believe the truck belonged to Madore, but did not have information on where he had rented the vehicle. They also said they did not know whether Madore legally owned the pistol he used in the attack or the rifle found in the U-Haul, authorities said.

In New Hampshire, people don’t need to have a license to carry a concealed firearm, after state lawmakers amended the law in 2017 to eliminate that requirement, according to New Hampshire’s State Police.

Formella described Madore as transient and said he had recently stayed at a hotel in the Seacoast area. Madore also spent time living in the Concord metro area, Formella said.

Madore worked as a peer support specialist at Riverbend Community Mental Health in Concord for about one month in the summer of 2019, according to Patricia McLaughlin, vice president of communications and marketing for the nonprofit behavioral health services organization. She said she could not comment on why he left, saying it is a personnel matter.

New Hampshire Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Mitchell Weinberg conducted autopsies on both Haas and Madore and found that both men died from multiple gunshot wounds, Formella’s office said Saturday night.

The investigation includes State Police and authorities with the FBI, ATF, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Formella said. Concord police are assisting the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Department, he said.

Several other people were inside the lobby at the time of the attack, Formella said, but did not say who they were. Madore did not get past the facility’s metal detectors with the gun, Formella said. Investigators are reviewing video evidence as part of the investigation, he said.

“Mr. Haas died protecting the patients and staff and visitors at New Hampshire Hospital and there’s no question in my mind that we were fortunate that he was there,” Formella said.

Officials declined to provide details of the trooper’s response to the attack, citing the ongoing homicide investigation. The trooper who killed Madore has not been identified by authorities.

Officials hailed his actions as heroic, saying he saved the lives at the hospital.

“I am extremely proud of the trooper’s actions that without a doubt prevented additional loss of life,” Colonel Mark B. Hall, director of New Hampshire’s State Police, told reporters at the press conference.

Governor Chris Sununu praised the response of Haas, law enforcement, and the hospital’s staff to the shooting.

“Make no mistake, if not for the heroics and sacrifice of Bradley Haas, the bravery of the New Hampshire Hospital staff, the unflinching response of New Hampshire State Police, this tragedy — it could have been much, much worse,” Sununu said. “New Hampshire owes a debt of gratitude to them all.”

CPR was administered at the scene before Haas was taken to Concord Hospital, where he died, officials said.

Haas, a former chief with the Franklin Police Department, was unarmed at the time of the shooting, officials said. Haas had been with the hospital since 2019, Formella said.

He served for three years with the US Army as a military police officer, and spent nearly 30 years with the police in his hometown of Franklin. He rose through the ranks and retired as the department’s chief in 2008.

Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein took over as head of the department in 2009.

“As a department, we’ll certainly remember him with the flag at half staff [and] mourning bands on our badges,” Goldstein said in a phone interview. “And certainly anything the family needs, we’re happy to help.”

Goldstein said Haas dedicated his career to public safety.

“It’s a shock because [even though] we know this stuff happens, when it does, it doesn’t make it any easier,” he said. “And certainly if you know the individual, it makes it that much more difficult.”

Chief Haas dedicated 26 years to the City and department culminating in his tenure as chief. He retired in 2008. He...

Posted by Franklin Police Department on Saturday, November 18, 2023

Merrimack County Sheriff David Croft knew Haas for more than 20 years while both were serving as police officers — Haas in Franklin, and Croft in neighboring Boscawen.

“We used to meet on the town line and maybe discuss what’s going on in each of our communities, or maybe we just had a cup of coffee. I’ve always been very impressed by him,” Croft said. “His dedication to the citizens of — not only Franklin, but the state of New Hampshire — was commendable.”

Croft responded to the shooting scene Friday and was still working there when he learned Haas had been killed, he said.

“I was horrified,” Croft said. “And all I could think of is his family and his friends and what they must be going through.”

The 185-bed hospital is New Hampshire’s only state-run mental health facility. At the facility Saturday afternoon, a half-dozen state police cruisers and a State Police Major Crime Unit truck were parked near the front entrance and yellow police tape that was strung up fluttered in the breeze. Investigators could be seen entering and exiting the hospital.

Ken Merrifield, New Hampshire’s commissioner of labor, said in an interview Saturday that when he became the city’s mayor in early 2008, Haas was Franklin’s police chief.

“He’s done a tremendous service for the city of Franklin and now the state,” Merrifield said. “And it’s really just heartbreaking to see this come to pass.”

Amanda Gokee and Steven Porter of the Globe staff contributed to this report.