On December 26, 2000, Louis Auguste Javelle, a 58-year-old White male, was tragically killed in a mass shooting at his workplace, Edgewater Technology, located at 200 Harvard Mill Square in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Javelle, the company's director of consulting, was visiting the Wakefield office on that day. The gunman, an employee named Michael Morgan McDermott, moved through the building armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, an AK-47-style rifle, and a.
32-caliber pistol.
Javelle was near a copying machine when he was fatally shot with the shotgun. He was one of seven coworkers murdered by McDermott during the rampage. Police responded to the scene and took McDermott into custody. He was the sole perpetrator of the attack, and no other suspects were identified or arrested in connection with the killings.
Prosecutors later presented evidence that McDermott's wages were being garnished to pay back federal taxes, suggesting this as a possible motive for his violent actions. During his trial, McDermott offered delusional explanations for the shootings, which were rejected by the jury. On April 24, 2002, a Middlesex County jury found Michael Morgan McDermott guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder. He received a sentence of life in prison for each count, without the possibility of parole. His subsequent appeals have been denied, and he remains incarcerated.
