He said it took him many years to forgive Golden. He wrote about the emotions he felt toward the young man and his accomplice as he faced life alone with his crying toddler son. It's way past time to let our hurt go and pray for peace, calm, strength and healing for this family.
Golden and Johnson, who according to ABC News are the only two American mass school shooters ever released from prison, were convicted of murder as juveniles for their crime, which was the second deadliest mass school shooting until the following year.
On April 20, , two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, gunned down 12 students and a teacher. The gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, then committed suicide. The Westside Middle School killers were released when they turned 21, Johnson in and Golden in Johnson was later arrested on drug and weapons charges, however, and he served time in state and federal prison. Bureau of Prisons records show he is no longer in custody.
Golden's whereabouts and name change were unknown until , when, as Grant, he applied for a concealed carry handgun permit in Arkansas.
However, apparently unbeknownst to his family, Golden reportedly demonstrated violence by firing his BB gun at animals and other children. On his birthday, August 11, , Johnson pleaded guilty to all charges. A trial against Golden was held the same day, and in just over three hours, he, too, was found guilty on all charges. Walden was unable to charge the suspects as adults because they did not meet the minimum age of culpability, which is fourteen, at the time of the incident.
In , Arkansas did not have a provision in the law that would allow juveniles to serve life sentences for heinous crimes. Although Judge Wilson added additional time to their sentences due to the aggravated circumstances and weapons violations, both suspects were scheduled for release upon their twenty-first birthdays for Johnson and for Golden.
The shooting at Westside Middle School was instrumental in pushing legislative action to allow prosecutors discretion in charging juveniles as adults. This act allowed prosecutors to charge juveniles under the age of fourteen as adults for offenses of capital murder and first-degree murder, and to include adult sentencing guidelines commensurate with the seriousness of the offense.
The legislature additionally passed Act , requiring the Department of Youth Services to establish a separate facility for individuals between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. The incident at Westside Middle School was not the first school shooting to occur in the state. On December 15, , a fifteen-year-old student in Stamps Lafayette County conducted a similar ambush-style attack, firing upon students from a nearby wooded area.
It is unknown whether Johnson or Golden had any knowledge of the details of this attack, but the similarity and timing is remarkable. This attack, just over one year later, is the only other multi-suspect incident involving students attacking fellow classmates.
The events that unfolded on March 24, , at Westside Middle School catapulted Jonesboro into the national and international spotlight because of concerns about the growing number of school shootings during the late s. In spite of this outside influence, the Jonesboro Sun was recognized in as one of two Pulitzer Prize finalists for the Breaking News Reporting category. Almost 9, mourners attended, including Janet Reno, the attorney general of the United States.
The community eventually erected a memorial garden on the campus but away from the actual location of the shooting. Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden were both released on their twenty-first birthdays, in and , respectively. Johnson was arrested and charged with a variety of drug, theft, and weapons crimes starting in In July , after serving several years in prison, he was released into the custody of the U. Probation Office for the Southern District of Texas and placed in a drug rehabilitation program.
Golden legally changed his name to Drew Grant; this fact became public when, in , he applied for a concealed carry permit but was denied. The ruling was seen as largely symbolic; neither Golden nor Johnson appeared in court to contest the judgment. Golden was killed in a car accident in Missouri on July 27, For additional information: Brown, Carleton H.
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