Tech company shooting rampage leaves seven dead

　　12月26日，圣诞节后的第一天，美国又发生了一起震惊全美的工作场所特大枪杀事件，7名供职于一家互联网公司的职员惨遭同事枪杀，从而酿成20世纪末美国最大的工作场所恶性枪杀案，也是美国高科技公司发生的首例枪杀事件。

　　A heavily armed employee gunned down seven co-worke rs in a shooting spree at a troubled Internet consultin g firm the day after Christmas, officials said.

　　Authorities said they were investigating whether th e suspect, Michael McDermott, 42, of Haverhill, Mass., was distraught(发狂) about a plan by Edgewater Technology Inc. To garnish his wages for back taxes following a re quest from the Internal Revenue Service.

　　Authorities said McDermott, a 300-pound man with a big beard, used an AK-47-style semiautomatic assault ri fle and a 12-gauge shotgun(散弹猎枪) to repeatedly shoot ea ch of his victims. He was also carrying a semiautomatic handgun when he was arrested, but police said it had no t been fired.

　　The massacre(惨杀) was the latest in a string of shoo tings in recent years in U.S. workplaces, schools and c hurches.

　　Authorities said the shootings did not appear to be totally random. Five of the seven victims worked in the accounting department and the assailant(攻击者) walked pas t other employees to shoot them.

　　Police said they found McDermott sitting passively in a chair with his weapons still loaded and within rea ch. He did not resist as police wrestled him to the gro und, they said. He was to be arraigned on murder charge s soon.

　　The rampage(狂乱) started at about 11 am and lasted n o more than 10 minutes, the suspect may have hidden the weapons at the company at some earlier time.

　　McDermott was hired in March by Edgewater, an Inter net software consulting firm located in a three-story r enovated factory building in Wakefield(韦克菲尔德，英格兰北部城市). The suburb, some 15 miles northwest of Boston, is part of the high-tech corridor that rings the city.

　　The most recent U.S. mass murder, in Honolulu in No vember 1999, also left seven dead. Others included July 1999 shootings that left nine dead at two Atlanta broke rages, August 1999 shootings that left three people dea d at two office buildings in Pelham, Alabama, and an in cident in Garden Grove, California, that same month whe re a man opened fire in an auto parts store killing two people.

　　By Christopher Noble