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   From: thanks.democrats@splcenter.org   
      
   Seven Dead in Mass. Office Shooting   
      
   By ABC NEWS W A K E F I E L D, Mass., Dec. 26   
      
   Seven people were killed today when a man armed with a shotgun,   
   a semiautomatic assault rifle, and a semi-automatic pistol   
   opened fire at the corporate headquarters of a Massachusetts   
   Internet consulting firm.   
      
   Michael McDermott, 42, an employee of the company, Edgewater   
   Technology, Inc., was arrested in the building lobby and charged   
   with seven counts of murder, police said   
      
   Police received numerous emergency calls at 11 a.m. When the   
   shooting broke out, several employees who heard the shots fled   
   the building and took refuge in a store across the street, where   
   they called police.   
      
   All seven people killed in the five-to-10 minute attack were   
   employees of Edgewater. Two were killed in the company’s   
   reception area while the other five were gunned down at their   
   work stations, police said. 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 and had no prior   
   criminal record. Police found McDermott sitting silently in the   
   reception area, a body nearby. Though his weapons were within   
   reach, he was arrested without gunfire.   
      
   Assistant District Attorney John McEvoy refused to comment on   
   whether the victims were shot at random or whether they were   
   chosen for some reason out of the 70-80 people working in the   
   building at the time. No one else was shot.   
      
   The victims were identified as Jennifer Bragg-Capobianco; Janice   
   Hagerty; Louis Javelle; Rose Manfredy; Paul Marceau; Cheryl   
   Troy; and Craig Wood.   
      
   McDermott’s wages were to be garnished after the holidays   
   because he was delinquent in tax payments, said Middlesex   
   District Attorney Martha Coakley, who said the IRS had contacted   
   Edgewater. The garnishment could have been a motive for the   
   shootings, Coakley said.   
      
   McDermott had worked at Edgewater since March, said McEvoy.   
      
   During an earlier briefing, McEvoy refused to comment on whether   
   a rumor that 25 percent of the company’s staff was going to be   
   laid off triggered the shooting. Company officials said there   
   have not been any layoffs at Edgewater and none are planned any   
   time soon.   
      
   McDermott was to be arraigned Wednesday morning at Malden   
   District Court.   
      
   Scene Was ‘Absolutely Horrible’   
      
   “The gunman went postal,” one witness told reporters while grim-   
   faced police, wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets, were still   
   searching the three-story brick office complex about 10 miles   
   north of Boston in Wakefield.   
      
   Heavily armed officers who conducted a room-to-room search of   
   the offices, located in a converted mill, told reporters as they   
   came out of the building that the scene inside was “absolutely   
   horrible.”   
      
   For more than two hours, authorities closed off the area,   
   allowing only emergency crews, ambulances and police near the   
   building as they tried to locate any other victims and determine   
   how many people carried out the shooting.   
      
   A spokesman for Edgewater earlier today said the software   
   consulting company is in the process of moving its headquarters   
   from Fayetteville, Ark., to Wakefield.   
      
   The company is undergoing a streamlining process, selling off   
   its Commercial Services and Intellimark divisions to focus on   
   Internet services. On Thursday it announced it was offering $8 a   
   share for some 57 percent of the company’s outstanding common   
   stock, a total offering of $130 million.   
      
   ABCNEWS.com’s Dean Schabner and The Associated Press contributed   
   to this report.   
      
   http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=94595&page=1   
             
      
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