In the summer of 1999, a successful and generous man named Jamshid Havash, a 45-year-old male, found his life cut tragically short in a violent rampage that stunned the city of Atlanta. An immigrant who had fled political turmoil in Iran with his family in the 1970s, he had built a prosperous life in the United States. He was a highly educated man, holding a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and two graduate degrees from Georgia Tech.
His professional life was marked by an entrepreneurial spirit; he started his own environmental consulting firm and was also involved in real estate development. Recently, he had ventured into the world of day trading, a decision that would place him in the path of a disturbed individual.
On July 29, 1999, while at a day trading office in Atlanta, Jamshid Havash became one of the victims of a shooting spree carried out by a fellow day trader, Mark O. Barton. Barton, who had been experiencing significant financial losses, had already murdered his wife and two children before turning his aggression on the trading firms. In his deadly assault on two different offices, Barton killed nine people, including Havash, and injured thirteen others before taking his own life. The tragedy was compounded for Havash's family, as his wife and daughter were eight time zones away in Tehran at the time of the attack. They rushed back to the United States, a grueling 20-hour journey, only to arrive just in time for his funeral.
The aftermath of the shooting revealed a darker history surrounding the perpetrator, Mark O. Barton. Beyond his recent financial troubles, it emerged that he had been the prime suspect in the murders of his first wife and mother-in-law years earlier, a case that had remained unsolved. His actions on that July day were the culmination of a life spiraling out of control, leaving a wake of devastation and loss for numerous families, including the loved ones of Jamshid Havash, a man remembered for his hard work, generosity, and dedication to his family.
