Edgewater Technology shooting

On December 26, 2000, a mass shooting occurred at the offices of Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Michael Morgan McDermott, who worked at the company, shot and killed seven of his coworkers. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in Massachusetts history.

McDermott used an AK-47 variant semi-automatic rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, and a .32 caliber pistol during the attack, firing a total of 37 rounds. Police later recovered a .460-caliber Weatherby Mark V rifle from McDermott's locker at the workplace. When police found him, McDermott was sitting calmly and told them he did not speak German. At trial, he claimed he was born without a soul and that God had allowed him to earn one by traveling back in time to kill Nazis. Prosecutors argued the killings were instead motivated by his employer's garnishment of his wages to satisfy an IRS order for unpaid back taxes. Evidence presented at trial also showed McDermott had researched how to fake mental illness.

The seven victims killed were Jennifer Bragg Capobianco, 29 (marketing); Janice Hagerty, 46 (office manager); Louis A. Javelle, 58 (director of consulting); Rose Manfredi, 48 (payroll); Paul Marceau, 36 (development technician); Cheryl Troy, 50 (human resources director); and Craig Wood, 29 (human resources).

McDermott was found guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder on April 24, 2002, following a jury deliberation of 16 hours spread across three days. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He later appealed his conviction, arguing that a prosecution witness's mention of the September 11 attacks was unfair and should have prompted a mistrial, that the jury had been improperly instructed, and that the judge had wrongly admitted certain evidence. On April 13, 2007, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied the appeal, finding that given the length of the trial and the volume of evidence against McDermott, the outcome would have been the same regardless of the alleged errors.

Background reporting indicates McDermott was born Michael McDermod Martinez in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1958, grew up in Marshfield, and served six years in the U.S. Navy before working at a nuclear power plant and later at Duracell. He had accumulated financial troubles, including roughly $5,000 owed to the IRS in back taxes, which led Edgewater Technology to garnish part of his wages shortly before the shooting. As of 2024, McDermott was incarcerated at Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

A cherry tree was planted outside Edgewater Technology's offices in Wakefield in memory of the seven victims, and carnation flowers are woven into its branches every December in their remembrance.