Andrew Golden

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Andrew Golden (born May 25, 1986) was, at age 11, a gunman in the March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Arkansas school shooting. This crime occurred during the epidemic of school violence during 1996-1999. Golden and his co-defendant Mitchell Johnson took more lives than any other except those who committed the Columbine massacre the following year.

Ironically those who knew the two youths before do not remember them as being very close. Most of the firearms used in the offense were stolen from Andrew's grandfather Doug Golden. A witness said that Andrew had pulled a fire alarm inside the school and when everyone filed outside he and Mitchell opened fire. An M1 rifle was taken from this boy after his capture and ballistics proved it was the weapon that killed two of the children and injured one of the others.

According to all accounts, Andrew's parents were warm and loving. He was also very close to his grandparents and often stopped by their house on his way to school. Some were troubled, however, by the fact that this boy was raised very early to be familiar with guns and their use. Drew was given his first firearm when he was only six. It has often been described as a familiar "rite of manhood" in Arkansas.

Andrew's schoolmates described him as a bully who was very quick to pick fights. They also said he used very filthy language for a child. A classmate once accused him of killing her cat with a BB gun. She had found the animal dead in a trash can. Many criminal profilers have pointed out that serial killers often begin as children by killing animals.

Due to his age at the time of the shooting, Golden was originally to be released on his 18th birthday but federal gun charges mean he will be released from confinement on his twenty-first birthday, May 25, 2007.

[edit] External links

• Jonesboro: The Framing of a Tragedy