Jonesboro School Shooter Set to Be Released

Aug. 10, 2005 — -- Mitchell Johnson, one of two people convicted in the 1998 Jonesboro, Ark., schoolyard shootings that left five people dead, is set to be released from federal custody on Thursday.

Gretchen Woodard, Johnson's mother, told a local newspaper her son will not move back to Arkansas after he leaving a federal detention center near Memphis, Tenn. She said Johnson wants to become a minister. However, her words have brought little comfort to many in the Jonesboro community who are angry at Johnson's impending release.

Mitchell Wright, whose wife, Shannon, a teacher, was killed in the attack, said he realized seven years ago that Johnson would go free and has been "dreading this day for a long time." He added that he and his son, Zane, are "as ready as we can be." Wright has since remarried.

"I guess I really didn't understand how it would feel until now, until that day came," he said. "I've felt a lot of emotion in the last two weeks. To know that Mitchell Johnson will walk scot-free, and that he killed my wife and four young girls with full intent and malice, is just unbelievable to me."

Shannon Wright was 32 when she died after surgery for bullet wounds to her chest and abdomen.

Wright also expressed outrage at the freedoms Johnson will soon experience.

"When he walks out tomorrow, there will be no record," he said. "He can vote. He can buy a gun. He can join the military."

When Johnson was 13, he and his friend, Andrew Golden, then 11, stole rifles from Golden's grandfather on March 24, 1998. The boys, dressed in camouflage, hid in the woods behind the school until lunchtime, when Golden ran inside to pull the fire alarm. They opened fire as classmates and teachers filed out of the buildings, killing four students and one teacher.

The state had no way to hold Johnson past his 18th birthday because of a since-closed loophole in Arkansas' juvenile justice system. Federal prosecutors have used weapons laws to keep Johnson and Andrew Golden locked up until age 21. Golden is scheduled to be released in 2007.