A man, who, along with his teen friend, shot and killed five people at an Arkansas middle school in 1998 when he was 11 years old died in a car crash over the weekend, according to reports.
Drew Grant, 33, who legally changed his name from Andrew Golden, died on the night of July 27 when his Honda CRV crashed into a Chevrolet Tahoe on Highway 167, KAIT reported.
Daniel Petty, the 59-year-old driver of the other vehicle, was also killed in the accident, which took place some 100 miles north of Little Rock. Three other people, including a child and two adults, were hospitalized.
A man, who was 11 years old when he and another teen shot and killed four students and a teacher at Westside Middle School outside Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1998, was killed Saturday evening in a car crash. https://t.co/VWLevYLByc
— Evie Blad (@EvieBlad) July 28, 2019
It’s unclear if the other people were in Grant’s vehicle.
A police spokesman told HuffPost that Golden and Grant are “one in the same.”
According to the report, he spent nine years in a juvenile prison for carrying out the mass shooting. He carried out the murders with his friend, Mitchell Johnson, who was then 13, in March 1998.
The two were tried as juveniles and were found guilty of five counts of murder. They were ordered to be held until they turned 21.
I’m at the scene where Drew Grant aka Andrew Golden died in a crash last night near Sandtown. More details soon @Region8News pic.twitter.com/yDlEkGwXwn
— Miranda Reynolds (@MReynoldsKAIT) July 28, 2019
After Grant was released in 2007, a year later, he was caught applying for a firearm with his changed name. His application was later denied after his fingerprints showed that he had a criminal past.
Johnson, meanwhile, was arrested for possessing a firearm and marijuana during a police traffic stop in Arkansas.
Later, he was arrested in 2008 for marijuana possession and using a stolen credit card.
He was later convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison before he was released in 2015, ABC News reported.
School shooter Andrew Golden killed in car crash 21 years after deadly attack https://t.co/BOZRDyIWTJ pic.twitter.com/dUxML0KUsj
— New York Post (@nypost) July 29, 2019
A family member of one of Grant’s victims issued a statement to KAIT about his death.
“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. Sadness for his wife and son, sadness that they too will feel the loss that we have felt. To his family, we are so sorry for your loss. We are praying that his wife and child will make a full recovery,” the person wrote.
A teacher who was there during the shooting also commented on the crash and Grant’s death.
“I am VERY saddened at the loss of this young life as I would be any other student,” the teacher, Betty Fuller, said. “Regardless of whatever I feel in my own heart, I certainly hope he had found peace and forgiveness with the ONE that mattered. My focus now is continued healing and praying for a set of parents that not only lost their child once, but twice. I just cannot imagine the pain.”
