: Might mean absolutely nothing - but there have been multiple
: references to "seven" in recent news stories.

: I'll post the 2 most recent ones, and repost 2 earlier ones,
: as replies to this post, forming a "thread".

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Wednesday December 27 9:32 AM ET
Software Engineer Arraigned for Office Rampage

By Tim McLaughlin

WAKEFIELD, Mass. (Reuters) - A software engineer who methodically gunned down seven co-workers without warning at an Internet consulting firm was arraigned on Wednesday.

Authorities said the suspect, Michael McDermott, 42, may have been distraught about a plan by his employer, Edgewater Technology Inc., to garnish his wages for back taxes after a request from the Internal Revenue Service.

McDermott, who witnesses said had been chatting with co-workers minutes before the rampage, pleaded not guilty. Troubles with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service may have led McDermott, 42, of Haverhill to come to work on Tuesday armed with a fully loaded AK-47 assault rifle, a shotgun and semi-automatic handgun, prosecutors said.

Authorities said McDermott, a burly 300-pound man with a long, bushy beard, used the semiautomatic assault rifle and 12-gauge shotgun to repeatedly shoot each of his victims.

The IRS had requested that Edgewater garnish McDermott's wages for back taxes, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley told reporters on Tuesday. Edgewater had agreed not to begin garnishing McDermott's wages until after the holidays.

It appeared McDermott shot and killed the receptionist and another person in the entrance of the building before walking to the accounting area, Coakley said. He allegedly killed five employees there before returning to reception.

Police said they found McDermott sitting passively in a chair with his weapons still loaded and within reach. He did not resist as police wrestled him to the ground, they said. McDermott, who one neighbor described as ``a cross between Grizzly Adams and Brutus'' faces seven counts of murder when he is arraigned at Malden District Court.

The rampage lasted no more than 10 minutes.

Police took survivors to a nearby church where they were comforted by clergy and gave statements to law enforcement.

``I thought I was going to die,'' a 29-year-old Edgewater worker, who declined to give his name, said as he left the church. He was one of up to 70 people at work in the building at the time, officials said.

Another of McDermott's co-workers, Mike Stanley, described the accused gunman as ``six-foot-two, about 300 pounds with a big beard. He was a bit strange. But he was an amiable guy.

``He was joking with lots of people. He was joking with a bunch of people before he went on the rampage,'' Stanley told reporters.

McDermott was hired in March by Edgewater, an Internet software consulting firm located in a three-story renovated factory building in Wakefield. The suburb, some 15 miles northwest of Boston, is part of the high-tech corridor that rings the city.

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