Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["David R. Matusiak" <matusiak AT hotmail.com>]

http://www.msnbc.com/msn/507989.asp?cp1=1

                7 dead in Boston-area office shooting
               Suspect, 42, was co-worker at Internet
               consulting firm

                                      MSNBC staff and wire reports
               WAKEFIELD, Mass., Dec 26 - Seven
               people were killed Tuesday when a heavily
               armed man opened fire on co-workers at
               an Internet consulting firm in suburban
               Boston. Police burst into the building and
               seized the man as he sat in the lobby.

                MICHAEL McDERMOTT, 42, would be charged with
               seven counts of murder in the shootings at
               Edgewater Technology, said John McEvoy, a
               Middlesex County prosecutor.

               The names of the victims were withheld pending
               notification of their families.

               McEvoy would not discuss a motive other than
               to say it was "work-related." Co-workers said
               McDermott was a software tester, about
               6-foot-2 with a long, flowing beard. He was
               friendly but "a little strange," said Mike
               Stanley, a project leader.

               McDermott recently had been coming in late and
               his performance wasn't as good as it could
               have been, Stanley said. He declined to
               elaborate.

               None of the victims was among McDermott's
               supervisors, he said. "It seems like a random
               ridiculous thing," Stanley said. "It makes no
               sense to me."

               Defense attorney Kevin Reddington had no
               immediate comment.

               SUSPECT HEAVILY ARMED
               McDermott had an AK-47 rifle, a shotgun and a
               semi-automatic handgun when police burst into
               the building and found him sitting in the
               lobby with his weapons.

               "The Wakefield police were able to subdue Mr.
               McDermott, wrestle him to the ground, place
               him in custody," McEvoy said.

               Authorities said McDermott, an employee with
               Edgewater Technology since March, came to work
               as usual Tuesday morning. Around 11 a.m.,
               however, he walked through the company's
               offices in a converted factory building and
               methodically killed seven people, McEvoy said.

               "I thought I was going to die," said a
               29-year-old Edgewater worker, who declined to
               give his name.

               Frank Harrington, a contract consultant for
               the company, said he was in the building at
               the time of the shooting and heard eight to 10
               shots.

               Mike Brownson, who works across the street
               from the office complex, watched as police
               arrived and surrounded the building.

               "When police are ducking behind their own
               vehicles, it's not something you see every
               day," said Brownson.

                    Darren Emery,the manager of a store
               across the street, told MSNBC Cable that 14
               employees took cover in his store.

               One witness said McDermott had "gone postal."

               Jonathan Oldham, a 35-year-old carpenter, said
               McDermott moved out of a six-unit apartment
               complex in Weymouth, south of Boston, at the
               end of October. Oldham was surprised to learn
               the man he said was quiet and kept to himself
               was accused of the rampage.

               "I freaked," he said. "You never know if
               someone has problems with their life. It could
               have happened here."

               COMPANY IN STATE OF FLUX
               Started as a private Internet commerce
               software firm outside Boston in 1992,
               Edgewater Technologies was purchased by a
               large publicly traded temporary staffing
               company, StaffMark Inc. of Fayetteville, Ark.,
               in May 1999.

               The company has been in a state of flux
               lately. In the past 18 months, StaffMark began
               shedding its staffing units to focus solely on
               high-tech consulting at Edgewater.

               StaffMark changed its name to Edgewater last
               summer, just as it completed the sales of its
               largest staffing units.

               MSNBC.com has learned the company may have
               been in the process of removing its shares
               from public markets.

               In a Dec. 21 filing with the Securities and
               Exchange Commission, Edgewater issued a stock
               buyback plan that may have been a precursor to
               taking the company private. Such a move would
               end any employee's near-term hopes of striking
               it rich with stock options.


                    Edgewater buyback plan may hint at
               motive


               John Cooley, director of investor relations,
               confirmed that the company has undergone
               changes in the past few months, including its
               business focus, but said there hadn't been any
               layoffs and none was planned that he knew of.

               EMPLOYEES 'SHOCKED AND DEVASTATED'
               Shirley Singleton, Edgewater's chief
               executive, released a statement of sympathy.

                                  "Everyone at Edgewater
                                  Technology is shocked
                                  and devastated by the
                                  loss of our friends,"
                                  the statement said in
                                  part and added, "We
               extend our deepest sympathies to the victims'
               families at this tragic time."

               Survivors of the attack were in shock, said
               the Rev. Tom Powers, who helped with grief
               counseling at St. Joseph's Church, where about
               100 employees, family members and friends
               gathered after the shooting. They left
               sporadically, their faces stained by tears and
               holding each other for support.

               "There's nothing you can do to take the grief
               away," Powers said.

               Nancy Pecjo, a software developer with the
               company who is on maternity leave, was not at
               work at the time of the shootings but went to
               the building after hearing the news.

               She said 30 to 40 employees worked at the
               Wakefield office. She did not know who had
               been shot.

               "It's a great company, a wonderful company,"
               she said, adding that she didn't know of
               anyone who'd been fired recently or was
               disgruntled.

               "It's a small company, you get to know
               everybody there," she said. "When something
               like this happens it's very distressing."

               Edgewater also has offices in Alabama,
               Arkansas, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

               Edgewater's Massachusetts offices are in the
               Harvard Mills office complex, a three-story,
               red brick former factory that houses several
               companies in Wakefield, which is 10 miles
               north of downtown Boston. The suburb is part
               of the high-tech corridor that rings the city.

               The shooting was the latest in a string of
               shootings in recent years in U.S. workplaces,
               schools and churches.

               A shooting rampage in Honolulu in November
               1999 also left seven dead. Others include July
               1999 shootings that left nine dead at two
               Atlanta brokerages, and August 1999 shootings
               that left three people dead at two office
               buildings in Pelham, Ala.


               The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
               to this report.

---
this year i resolve to get pissing drunk everyday
and make faces at people in line at the teeter.
oh shit, you're sposda make a *different* resolution
every year, aren't you??
---

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