Biker gets prison for gun-stealing rampage at Walmart
ALBANY — A reputed member of a local biker gang was sentenced to 21⁄2 years in prison Monday for the night he smashed into a glass case in a Walmart store in Glenmont, stole six long guns and aimed one at witnesses.
Michael C. Mcdermott, 31, of Troy, whom federal prosecutors said was involved with the violent Suicide Squad motorcycle club, will be on supervised release for three years after he leaves prison. The special conditions of that release will bar him from having any association with a prospect, associate or member of the biker gang, U.S. District Judge Anne Nardacci said in imposing sentence before a courtroom that included the defendant’s family.
On May 10, 2022 at about 1:20 a.m., Mcdermott donned a ski mask and forced his way into the Walmart, where he used to work. He made a beeline to the sporting goods section and tried, unsuccessfully, to break into a glass case holding knives. He then grabbed a fire extinguisher, smashed open a case holding
firearms and stole six long guns — five shotguns and a rifle — one of which he dropped while he was running out, prosecutors said.
They said several Walmart employees followed Mcdermott out of the store, prompting the defendant to aim one of the long guns at a former coworker, before running into the woods. An employee used a cellphone to film the incident.
“Oh, s—t, he’s aiming,” a worker could be heard exclaiming, prosecutors said.
Mcdermott fled, then returned to the woods. But by then, police had found all the stolen guns, as well as Mcdermott’s ski mask and a hooded shirt. Investigators matched Mcdermott’s DNA to the mask and hooded shirt. And because Walmart is a federally licensed firearms dealer, the case, handled by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and Bethlehem police, went to U.S. District Court.
Mcdermott had ran amok in the Walmart seven months after the store fired him for an unrelated arrest on felony state gun charges on Oct. 10, 2021. That arrest had followed a shootout between the Suicide Squad and another biker gang that ended with the killing of 29-yearold disabled Army combat veteran Alexander Bolton and wounding of six others in an underground club on North Lake Avenue in Albany.
The Times Union reported days after the killing that law enforcement sources said an investigation was focusing on whether people tied to the Pagans motorcycle club had gone to the site, a clubhouse for the Suicide Squad that was operating without a permit, because of an earlier incident.
The death of Bolton, who grew up in Defreestville and served in Afghanistan, remains unsolved.
Mcdermott pleaded guilty in September to one count of theft of firearms from a licensed dealer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Reiner asked Nardacci to impose a sentence of 30 to 37 months for Mcdermott. Mcdermott’s attorney, Danielle Neroni, told the judge that her client was one of about 10 people arrested after police recovered two guns in the underground club.
“The government portrays Mr. Mcdermott as somehow involved in a shootout. This could not be further from the truth,” she stated in a memo.
She asked for time served.
When given a chance to speak, Mcdermott, clad in an orange jail suit, told the judge his problem was due to drug issues that hindered his better judgement. He apologized for his actions.