AR: Jonesboro school shooting by 11 and 13 year old

[philip964]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_ ... rew_Golden

Happened in 1998. Second deadliest school shooting until Columbine. 5 dead many wounded. Pulled fire alarm. Multiple weapons. Tried as juveniles, released when they turned 21.


https://news.yahoo.com/police-1998-arka ... 50203.html

One shooter was killed in a head on car crash.

Didn’t remember this. Similar tactics used by these youngsters as used by Parkland shooter.

The federal Gun Free School Zone Act was passed in 1990.

[The Annoyed Man]

I remember that shooting when it was in the news. I was unaware that both Johnson and Golden had been released. Johnson has apparently been a lifelong upstanding citizen with only a few additional prison sentences, both state and federal.

[Paladin]

Satanic Link to Slayings
The older of the two boys accused of having ambushed fellow students at an Arkansas school had a fascination with the occult, according to classmates. Mitchell Johnson, 13, apparently had discussed Satan with his classmates, according to a psychologist who counselled students after the killings.
The counsellor said that the children were clearly terrified of Johnson and only spoke of the boy's interest in the occult to a trusted teacher two days after the massacre. After one little boy mentioned it, two-thirds of the class said they, too, had known about it.
Johnson and Drew Golden, 11, are accused of having set-off a fire alarm at the Westside Middle School and firing on classmates and teachers. Four children and a teacher died and another ten were injured. The students spoke of Johnson having drawn satanic pentagrams on his hands and on the covers of his school books. It was claimed that he told classmates, "If I don't get you, others will."
The counsellor said this threat by Johnson raised the question of whether the boy was referring to another child or if an older person was in some way involved.
It is claimed that Candace Porter, whom Johnson considered to be his girlfriend, had told him she wanted nothing to do with him because of his weird, satanic behavior. Johnson had, according to students, been making hand signals at schools that some mistakenly interpreted as being gang-related. In fact, the hand signals may have been a representation of two horns and a skull which is part of satanic ritual.
The counsellor said police were now examining the information. "It has to raise the possibility of some sort of coven," the counsellor said. (The Sunday Mail, March 19, 1998)