Member-only story
Seven Employees Would be Dead by the End of the Day
Day after Christmas
Seven employees who showed up for work at Edgewater Technologies in Wakefield, Massachusetts would lay dead on the floor by the end of the day. Shot to death by an angry co-worker, Michael M. McDermott, 42.
The office was decorated for Christmas, and everyone was still in a holiday mood. McDermott had come in that morning with a gym bag holding an assault rifle, a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol, and ammunition. The police would find more weapons and ammunition when they searched his locker and apartment.
Shots rang out
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until McDermott walked into the lobby on December 26, 2000, carrying the assault weapon at 11:00 that morning. First, he shot Janice Hagerty, who was filling in for the receptionist. He also shot Cheryl Troy, who was in the human resources department and happened to be standing nearby.
The targets
As the shots rang out, employees scattered. But McDermott wasn’t after random targets. He knew who he wanted to kill.
After shooting the two women in the lobby, he went into Human Resources, where he gunned down three people. Then he…