Shooting of man who ‘went bezerk’ justified; victim had been committed to state hospital 2 months earlier

MANCHESTER, NH — A city man was justified in the shooting of Jonathan Landry of Auburn, killing him last year in pharmacy parking lot, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General.

Investigators said it was reasonable for Jonathan Bright, then 34, to conclude that Landry, 22, “constituted an imminent threat of unlawful deadly force” when, on the night of June 28, 2022, Bright fired one shot from his tan-colored Glock 19X, hitting Landry in the chest.

According to the Attorney General’s investigative report released Monday of the shooting at Rite-Aid, 1631 Elm St., that night Landry came out of the tree line, about 40 to 50 feet away, and began running at Bright and his friend, Stephen Reischer, who were in the parking lot talking.  Landry was waving a large tree branch in the air as he barreled towards the two men, who had never met or interacted with him until that moment.

Landry ran at them yelling incoherently and slamming the branch into the pavement, breaking it into pieces.  He continued chasing them as they tried to get into their cars, parked in the lot. Reischer ran into the pharmacy when he realized he wouldn’t be able to unlock his car and get into it without Landry catching up to him.

Landry continued to pursue Bright who backed away from him and ultimately pulled out his handgun, fitted with a flashlight, telling Landry he had a gun and repeatedly telling him to stop.  Landry, however, didn’t and as he closed in on Bright, Bright fired one shot, killing him.

Landry’s parents, Lisa and Joseph Landry, told detectives Landry suffered from hearing loss as a child and at one point wore a hearing aid but had not worn it recently. They believed their son had bipolar disorder, and he twice had been a patient at the Concord State Hospital for in-patient care related to “episodes.”

Two months before he was shot to death, in April 2022, Landry was involuntarily admitted to the state hospital after it was discovered he was not taking his medication and skipped appointments. His parents knew Landry was having mental health struggles, but believed he was receiving treatment.

Under New Hampshire law, the NH Attorney General said Bright had no duty to retreat because he lawfully had a right to be in the public parking lot of the Rite-Aid.  Still, eyewitnesses and video footage showed he did try to retreat from Landry’s attack. Based on the evidence gathered, there were no other apparent avenues he could have taken to retreat with complete safety, according to the Attorney General.

“At that moment, and although unarmed, Mr. Landry was within arm’s reach of Mr. Bright, and thus capable of causing physical contact with Mr. Bright,” according to the investigation. “Everything that Mr. Landry had done up to that point can be objectively viewed as posing an imminent and deadly threat. First, Mr. Landry launched his attack upon Mr. Bright unprovoked. Second, Mr. Landry sustained his pursuit of Mr. Bright despite continued and repeated demands by Mr. Bright that he stop. Third, Mr. Landry’s pursuit of Mr. Bright persisted through Mr. Bright’s warnings that he (Mr. Bright) had a handgun and visibly brandished this handgun to Mr. Landry, even shining the under-barrel flashlight on him. Finally, Mr. Bright last saw Mr. Landry armed with a large branch, which he described Mr. Landry as swinging wildly and rapidly, while he screamed incoherently, and while Mr. Landry was quickly closing the distance between them. Moreover, Mr. Landry had both opportunity and ability to use deadly physical force upon Mr. Bright. Given how quickly Mr. Landry closed the distance between them, and being in such close proximity to Mr. Bright, he could gain control of Mr. Bright’s handgun and use it against him. Therefore, we conclude that Mr. Bright objectively and reasonably believed that Mr. Landry was about to use deadly force.”

Only 30 seconds had elapsed from the time Landry emerged from the tree line, armed with a branch, to when he collapsed and died.  Investigators determined that from the video recordings they obtained from Rite-Aid.

At 10:29 p.m., Landry, in a dark-colored sweater and with a backpack, is recorded exiting the store and walking toward Elm Street, out of the frame.  He later reenters the frame at 10:41:30 “wielding a large branch.”  Landry ran east across the parking lot, raising the large branch above his head, in pursuit of Bright.  Just as Landry closes in on Bright – within arm’s reach of him — the two men separate.

Then Landry lifts the bottom of his sweater to check his chest and, 30 seconds after his charge began, he collapses to the ground.  At 10:42:10 Bright holsters his gun.  He also calls 911.

Bright told detectives that as he was backing away from Landry, he repeatedly told him he had a gun and to stop. Despite repeated warnings, Landry did not back down, and continued to rush toward him while screaming and flailing with both hands. At that point, Landry was not holding the branch.

Bright said Landry was one and a half to two feet away from him; so close, that he had to tuck his hands into his chest to create distance, because if they were fully extended, Landry would have been about an inch from the gun barrel.

At this point, Bright was unsure if Landry was going for his (Bright’s) throat, or if he was trying to grab his handgun. He believed Landry was going to kill him. Bright said that was when he shot Landry.

“How quickly he [Mr. Landry] was moving it [the large stick], and how fast he was running at me, and the screaming, it was just immediate red flags, and again like I said, when he got to the point where he’s like, now coming after me, and I have no idea why, and he’s screaming at me, I literally felt as though I was going to be murdered by that guy,” Bright told investigators.  “I have no idea why it happened, I have no idea where he came from, I have no idea what his motive was to initiate that entire process from the bush. It’s probably the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I literally thought he was going to kill me if he got his hands on me or my gun at that point.”

Bright told police Landry “went berserk.” He said it was only after being shot that Landry stopped; he stopped, placed his hands to his chest, turned to Bright, and “remarked that he shot him.”  Bright told Landry to put his hands on his head and not to move. He immediately pulled out his phone and began to call 911. As he dialed, Landry fell to the ground.  Bright repeatedly urged the 911 operator to “hurry up” and send an ambulance and the police.

Bright told detectives Landry attempted to lift his head up, but Bright told him that he needed to lay flat. He explained that he told Landry to lay flat based on his training as a security guard on responding to being shot

Chief Medical Examiner Jennie Duval performed the autopsy and determined Landry’s cause of death was a single gunshot wound of the chest with perforation of the heart.  His death was ruled a homicide.

The full report from the Attorney General is below.