Angry Investor Kills 3, Wounds 1 at Zigzag Net Marketing Company

Vincent Dortch, 44, organized a meeting Monday night to meet with other investors and the managers of Zigzag Net, Inc., a marketing company in Philadelphia. He and the other two investors had lost money in a failed startup venture, and he wanted to talk about what had gone wrong.

Dortch had other plans for the meeting, evidently, because he walked into the building carrying an assault rifle and a .40-caliber handgun. According to police inspector Joseph Fox, just minutes after the meeting started, Dortch stood up and announced to the group, "You have a minute or two to say your prayers."

Dortch, along with others, had invested in an apparent startup company called Watson International, and three of the men in the room had ties to the startup company. Zigzag’s website lists Mark Norris as CEO of Zigzag, and Robert Norris, his brother, as vice president of business development. The three investors at the meeting had all lost money on the failed startup deal. Police say the total amount lost could have been as much as $500,000.

When police arrived at the scene, Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross said, they found "utter chaos." Two victims were lying on the floor and a third was sitting in a chair with "wounds to various parts of the body," Ross said. The two other investors had been bound with duct tape, but not shot. Police said that they told investigators that Dortch had told them he was going to drive to New York state and shoot another person, but they managed to talk him out of it.

Zigzag’s human resources manager, Patrick Sweeney, had also been bound and shot several times, but he was able to call police. When officers entered the building, they found Dortch in an upstairs hallway and exchanged gunfire with him. Fox said that Dortch may have been shot by the police officers, but he ducked behind a door and shot himself fatally in the head.

The three men who were killed were Robert Norris, 41, Mark Norris, 46, and James Rief, 42, all of whom had ties to Watson International. Sweeney was taken to Thomas Jefferson Hospital, where he is in critical condition. Zigzag has about 15 employees, and both Reif and Robert Norris were retired law enforcement officers, according to police.