An employee wielding a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun opened fire at an Internet consulting company, killing seven co-workers before being subdued by police, authorities said.
Prosecutors were investigating whether Michael McDermott, 42, was upset about an Internal Revenue Service request to garnish his wages to pay back taxes, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said on Tuesday.
PHOTO: AP
She said Edgewater Technology Inc had agreed not to begin taking out money from McDermott's paycheck until after the holidays.
However, McDermott had an angry outburst in the company's accounting department last week over the prospect of losing some of his wages, according to an employee who spoke only on condition of anonymity. He apparently felt the company was not doing enough to take his side against the IRS, the employee said.
Most of the victims -- four women and three men -- worked in the accounting department. Coakley said the shootings were apparently not random, since the suspect bypassed several people during Tuesday's rampage.
Two people were shot in the reception area and the others were killed at their desks in another wing of the building. Shell casings and bullets were found all over the office.
"There was an enormous amount of firepower," Coakley said.
She said McDermott did not have a permit for any of the weapons he was carrying: a semiautomatic assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol.
She said he had no prior criminal record.
Police found McDermott sitting silently in the reception area, a body nearby, his weapons within reach. He was arrested without gunfire.
"They made a split-second decision to hold their fire to try to effect an arrest," said Stephen Doherty, the police chief in this city 16km north of Boston.
McDermott faced seven charges of murder at yesterday's arraignment. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington, who met with McDermott, would not comment on his demeanor or a possible motive.
McDermott was a software tester who had worked at the company since March, said Mike Stanley, a team projects leader. He said McDermott recently had been coming in late and his performance wasn't as good as it could have been, but declined to elaborate.
He said none of the victims was McDermott's supervisor.
"He had nothing to do with any of them," Stanley said, a tear running down his right cheek. "It seems like a random ridiculous thing."
In a statement, the company said McDermott's actions "apparently stem from occurrences in his personal life."
Kevin Forzese, who l ived upstairs from McDermott in Haverhill, said the suspect had never mentioned money problems. He also said McDermott had mentioned that he collected antique guns, but he had never seen any weapons in McDermott's apartment.
"He never talked about the company," Forzese said. "I talked to him about money and he said he was doing really well."
Edgewater employs approximately 240 people in Massachusetts, said John Cooley, director of investor relations. The company is in the process of moving its headquarters from Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Wakefield. The company also has offices in Alabama, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS