1998 Arkansas school shooter, who killed five when he was 11, dies in head-on car crash
A man who was involved in a middle school shooting when he was 11 years old in 1998 died in car crash on a northeastern Arkansas highway, state police said.
Andrew Golden, 33, who legally changed his name to Drew Grant, died Saturday evening, local station KAIT-TV reported. His 2017 Honda CRV crashed head-on into a 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe on Highway 167 near Cave City, about 100 miles north of Little Rock.
The Chevrolet driver, identified as Daniel Petty, 59, of Essex, Missouri, also was killed, according to a state police preliminary summary of the wreck. Three other people, including two adults and a child, were injured and taken to hospitals in Little Rock and Batesville.
The summary didn’t say which vehicle they were in, how severely they were hurt or which vehicle was responsible for the crash.
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Golden and Mitchell Johnson, who were 11 and 13, respectively, set off a fire alarm on March 24, 1998, and shot at people as they exited Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, about 120 miles northeast of Little Rock. They killed four students and a teacher.
The victims were 12-year-olds Paige Herring and Stephanie Johnson, 11-year-olds Brittney Varner and Natalie Brooks and teacher Shannon Wright.
Mitch Wright, the husband of Shannon Wright, offered his condolences to Golden’s family in a comment sent to KAIT.
“The news of Andrew Golden’s death today fills our family with mixed emotions as I’m sure it does with the other families and students of the Westside shooting. Mostly sadness," he said. "To his family, we are so sorry for your loss."
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In 2017, a judge presiding over a lawsuit filed by the victims’ families awarded them $150 million in damages.
Golden and Johnson were tried as juveniles and were expected to remain in custody until age 21, in accordance with Arkansas law at the time. Johnson was released in 2005, and Golden was released in 2007. Because they were tried as juveniles, their records were sealed.
Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 1998 Arkansas school shooter dies in head-on car crash, police say
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