24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre

24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre

Jacob Miller - August 16, 2017

Mitchell Scott Johnson and Andrew Douglas Golden are the former middle school students who perpetrated March 24, 1998, Jonesboro Massacre at Westside Middle School in Arkansas.

When Mitchell was seven his parents divorced and he moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas. His mother remarried an inmate at the prison where she worked as a guard. When Mitchel was twelve, he was charged with molesting a 3-year-old girl while on vacation in southern Minnesota but the record has since been expunged.

Andrew Golden was born and raised in Jonesboro. Golden was said to have a good relationship with his parents. He was raised to be familiar with firearms and was given his first gun by his father when he was six years old.

The boys were both students at Westside Middle and they became friends on the school bus. The boys were known to bully other students and spoke often of joining gangs and doing drugs. Johnson had, at one point, threatened to kill sixth-grader Candace Porter, his former girlfriend who ended their relationship. Golden often got into fistfights with the other students. A classmate accused him of killing her cat with a BB gun.

Golden and Johnson planned their attack. On the night before the shooting Golden and Johnson stocked Johnson’s mother’s minivan with camping supplies, food, weapons, and ammunition. The next morning the boys drove the van to school. Golden pulled the fire alarm and ran to the woods where Johnson prepared the weapons. When the school children and teachers poured out into the schoolyard, the boys opened fire. Johnson and Golden killed four female students and one pregnant teacher and wounded ten others. Johnson and Golden were captured by the police as they tried to escape back to their van.

The boys were tried as juveniles. Johnson was 13-years-old and Golden was 11-years-old. They were found guilty of five counts of murder. Johnson and Golder were taken to Alexander, Arkansas to be placed in the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, Arkansas’ most secure juvenile facility. They were sentenced to detention until they turn 21. Johnson was released in 2005 and golden in 2007.

Had Johnson and Golden been older the Jonesboro prosecutor would have sought a death sentence for the two. The two children were among the youngest people ever charged with murder in American history.

24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson, shielded from camera, under arrest, being led away. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Andrew ‘Drew’ Golden seen at age 11 in a 1998 file photo. murderpedia
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Andrew Golden practice his rife shooting (from a home video). murderpedia
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Andrew Golden as a toddler, in military gear with a toy gun. murderpedia
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
In a family photo, Andrew Golden holds a handgun as he sits in the living room with his father. Andrew is one of two boys accused in the shooting deaths of four girls and one teacher at the Westside Middle School, March 24, 1998. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
In this undated file photo sent via The Jonesboro Sun, Mitchell Johnson is shown at 13 years old. Johnson is one of two boys convicted in the 1998 Jonesboro, Ark. school shootings. AP Photo/The Jonesboro Sun, File
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
An emergency worker carries a young girl from an ambulance outside Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., Mar. 24, 1998. Four classmates and a teacher were killed when Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden opened fire at the school. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Backpacks and cleaning supplies lie in the hallway of Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., March 25, 1998. The view is from a door used by students to leave the building during a false fire alarm, followed by a shooting. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Police and investigators inspect the school yard. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Westside Middle School students gathered in the parking lot of a radio station, March 26, 1998, to hear a tribute song to the children who died in a shooting at the school near Jonesboro, Ark. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Witnesses of the tragic shooting, covered in blood, console each other. ABC news
24 Images of the Heartbreaking Jonesboro Middle School Massacre
Stunned medics take a breath and react to the tragic scene. murderpedia
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