Westside Middle School rampage

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The Westside Middle School rampage occurred on March 24, 1998 near Jonesboro , Craighead County , Arkansas . In the rampage , Mitchell Johnson, who was 13 at the time of the crime, and Andrew Golden, who was 11 at the time, shot four schoolgirls and a teacher. Another ten people were injured, some seriously. The two perpetrators were sentenced to several years' youth imprisonment and released from prison on their respective 21st birthday. Golden died in a traffic accident in 2019. Johnson has since become the only living school rampage in the United States who is not in custody.

Sequence of events

On the morning of March 24, 1998, 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson drove his stepfather's van to his 11-year-old friend Andrew Golden, whose parents were already at work. They packed the car with groceries and clothing and stole a total of eleven firearms and hundreds of cartridges from Golden's parents' house and his grandfather's household. They then drove to their school, Westside Middle School near Jonesboro, Arkansas. Towards the end of the lunch break, Golden went into the school building, set off the fire alarm, and hurried back outside, where he and Johnson lay in wait in the bushes. When the students left the building because of the fire alarm, Johnson and Golden opened fire. Their shots killed the students Paige Herring (12 years old), Stephanie Johnson (12 years old), Brittney Varner (11 years old), Natalie Brooks (11 years old) and the teacher Shannon Wright and injured ten other people, some seriously. When Johnson and Golden tried to escape with their van, they were stopped by the police and arrested.

Backgrounds of the crime

Mitchell Scott Johnson was born on August 11, 1984, was originally from Minnesota and grew up with a younger brother in difficult family circumstances. His father was an alcoholic and violent towards Mitchell. From the age of eight, Mitchell was raped by an older boy for several years . His parents divorced when Mitchell was ten years old. After the divorce, he and his brother lived with their mother, who moved them to Arkansas and remarried. Mitchell was on good terms with his stepfather, and in his new home he quickly built up a circle of friends. He was considered a good student who played on his school's football, baseball, and basketball teams, went to church, sang in a choir, and dated classmates. During the summer vacation, he visited his birth father in Minnesota, where Mitchell sexually abused a two-year-old girl in the summer of 1997. During the same period, he expressed suicidal intent to a friend , but the friend was able to stop him from harming himself. In the spring of 1998, Johnson was expelled from the basketball team for having scratched his initials on his shoulder. Despite this incident, Johnson's teachers generally described him as a polite, well-mannered boy who was not observed to have any worrying behavior. During his school years, however, he had been banned from class three times for minor offenses, the first suspension being ordered two years before the crime by teacher Shannon Wright, who was killed in the rampage. Shortly before the act, his girlfriend separated from him, who was injured in the rampage. Johnson had also turned away two other girls who were injured in the act. According to several classmates, Johnson said before the rampage that he was “sick of everything” and would take revenge on all the girls who broke up with him. Johnson denied at a hearing in 2007 that he had expressed revenge in the lead-up to the crime and that Wright and his ex-girlfriend were targeted as victims. Johnson also said that Golden was the one who had the idea to act.

Andrew Douglas Golden was born on May 25, 1986 and was used to handling guns as a child. His grandfather went hunting and his parents were avid hobby shooters. On his sixth birthday, Golden was given his first rifle and at the time of the crime he was already a skilled marksman. At school he was seen as a class clown and "gun fanatic". He behaved inconspicuously in the presence of his parents, whereas acquaintances described him as a mean, hostile and aggressive boy who threatened and beat other children and tortured animals. Psychologist and writer Peter Langman thinks it likely that Golden was a psychopath and compares the dynamic between himself and Johnson to that between Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine High School rampage . In both perpetrator duos, one who ran amok was a psychopath and the leader (Golden / Harris) and the other a psychotic or traumatized follower (Johnson / Klebold).

Criminal Proceedings and Detention

Johnson and Golden were charged with five counts of murder and grievous bodily harm on ten counts. While Johnson pleaded guilty, Golden's attorney pleaded "not guilty" due to his client's insanity. On August 11, 1998, the court found both boys guilty and sentenced them to several years' youth imprisonment. Since Johnson and Golden were younger than 14 at the time of the crime, they had to be released from custody at the latest under the law of the US state Arkansas at the age of 21. Johnson spent seven years in prison and was released in 2005. Golden was imprisoned for ten years and released in 2007. Your criminal records have been sealed.

aftermath

Golden died in a traffic accident in July 2019. Since then, Johnson has been the only living school rampage in the United States not in custody.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Peter Langman: Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-23637-0 , pp. 62 f.
  2. ^ A b c Elisha Fieldstadt: Arkansas school shooter who killed five in 1998 dies in head-on car crash. In: NBC News. July 29, 2019, accessed May 15, 2020.
  3. ^ Peter Langman: Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-23637-0 , pp. 229-241.
  4. ^ Peter Langman: Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-23637-0 , pp. 59-68, 280 f.
  5. ↑ Michael Braun: The attack was insidiously planned. In: The world. August 13, 1998, accessed May 15, 2020.
  6. ^ Arkansas School Shooter To Go Free. In: CBS News. August 11, 2005, accessed May 15, 2020.
  7. ↑ Meghan Kenneally: The Only Two Living US Mass School Shooters Who Are Not Incarcerated. In: ABC News. February 17, 2016, accessed May 15, 2020.