March 24, 1998. Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, AR. Two students, Mitchell Johnson, 13 and Andrew Golden, 11, pull the fire alarm and dash outside. The night before, they had swiped a Remington .30-06, .30 M1 carbine, .44 Magnum rifle, two .38 Special and one .357 revolver, .two .380 pistols, a .38 and .22 two-shot derringer from Golden’s grandparents. The two hid in the bushes and trained the guns to the building’s main exit. As students and faculty began filing out, Johnson and Golden opened fire. Four classmates and a teacher were murdered and ten others wounded before the shooters began their escape. They were apprehended by police before they could reach Golden’s mom’s van. Johnson and Golden were tried as juveniles and found guilty on five counts of murder.
Presented here is Golden’s May 28, 2008 deposition from the civil suit against them. At the time, he was applying for a concealed carry firearm permit. In 2017, the victims’ families were awarded a judgement of $150 million against the two.
According to Debbie Spencer, a science teacher at Westside:
Mitchell Johnson “was one of the most polite students I’ve ever had. Always, ‘Yes ma’am, no ma’am.” While awaiting trial, he wrote the following: "Hi. My name is Mitchell. My thoughts and prayers are with those people who were killed, or shot, and their families. I am really sad inside about everything. My thoughts and prayers are with those kids that I go to school with. I really want people to know the real Mitchell someday. Sincerely, Mitchell Johnson.”
By contrast, Andrew Golden “was sneaky. He would do enough to get by. I remember the conversation we had the day before [the shooting]. I was going over to see if they wanted to know what their grades were so far," Spencer said, remembering that Golden had just barely gotten a B. "You just got by by the skin of your teeth, didn't you?" she recalled saying to him. "And he said, 'Yup, I always do,'"
Both offenders were released on their 21st birthday, August 11, 2005 and May 25, 2007, respectively. Prior to Columbine, the Jonesboro school shooting was the second deadliest in U.S. history.
Andrew Golden later changed his name to Drew Grant. On July 27, 2019, he was traveling northbound on U.S. 167 in Arkansas in his Honda CRV when he died in a head-on collision.
