Looking Back: 1998 Westside Middle School Shooting in Jonesboro
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: December 14, 2012
The tragic events in Connecticut on Friday are weighing heavily on the hearts of people across the country.
For Arkansans, the mass killings might evoke memories of a shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro back in March of 1998.
On that fateful day, 11-year-old Andrew Golden (pictured, right) triggered a fire alarm in the school before running to meet 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson (pictured, left), who was waiting in the woods about 100 yards away from the doors where the students were to exit for the fire drill.
Armed with several firearms, including handguns and semi-automatic and bolt-action rifles, Johnson and Golden fired 30 rounds at the students and teachers as they exited the building, killing four students and one teacher, and wounding nine other students and one other teacher.
This came just four months after a 15-year-old in Stamps fired at students from a wooded area, wounding two.
Johnson and Golden were found guilty and sentenced to the Department of Youth Services Facility in Alexander, where they stayed until their respective 21st birthdays, when they walked out with no criminal records.
A state law at the time did not have a provision allowing juvenile offenders to serve life sentences.
In 1999, Arkansas passed Act 1192, which allowed for juveniles to be tried as adults in capital murder and first-degree murder cases.
For Arkansans, the mass killings might evoke memories of a shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro back in March of 1998.
On that fateful day, 11-year-old Andrew Golden (pictured, right) triggered a fire alarm in the school before running to meet 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson (pictured, left), who was waiting in the woods about 100 yards away from the doors where the students were to exit for the fire drill.
Armed with several firearms, including handguns and semi-automatic and bolt-action rifles, Johnson and Golden fired 30 rounds at the students and teachers as they exited the building, killing four students and one teacher, and wounding nine other students and one other teacher.
This came just four months after a 15-year-old in Stamps fired at students from a wooded area, wounding two.
Johnson and Golden were found guilty and sentenced to the Department of Youth Services Facility in Alexander, where they stayed until their respective 21st birthdays, when they walked out with no criminal records.
A state law at the time did not have a provision allowing juvenile offenders to serve life sentences.
In 1999, Arkansas passed Act 1192, which allowed for juveniles to be tried as adults in capital murder and first-degree murder cases.
