Girl Tells of Split With Shooting Suspect

JONESBORO, Ark. — The 11-year-old girl allegedly targeted by schoolmate Mitchell Johnson in last week’s deadly school shooting says she was his girlfriend for three days, then dropped him because he is trouble.

Candace Porter said Mitchell often talked about beating up other boys, so she thought little of it when she heard he was saying “something big might happen,” the Jonesboro Sun reported Sunday.

Police say Mitchell and another boy opened fire on students and teachers as they filed out of Westside Middle School in response to a fire alarm the boys allegedly set off Tuesday. Four students and a teacher were killed. Candace was among 10 people hospitalized with injuries.

Mitchell, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, are being held on charges of murder and battery.

Candace, a sixth-grade honor student, said she knew little about Mitchell when she agreed to be his girlfriend about a month ago and added that she does not feel responsible for his actions.

“I thought he was nice, and then I found out he was trouble,” she said. “He was always talking about fighting other people. He’d say he was going to beat them up the next day. He called one of our music teachers a bad name that I can’t say.”

After the shootings, Kara Tate, one of Candace’s classmates, said Mitchell had threatened to shoot Candace because she broke up with him.

Brushing strands of long brown hair away from her freckled face, Candace talked calmly about the shootings.

“We were going outside, and we heard these shots. We thought it may have been a test to see how we’d react to such a thing. After we heard the shots, we knew it wasn’t a test because there was people falling to the ground and stuff.”

Candace said teachers told the children to run to the gymnasium next door. A bullet struck her in the right side as she ran. She said she felt a stinging sensation but kept running until she reached the gym.

“They told me to sit up against a wall,” she said. “I was bleeding a little.”

A schoolmate was seated beside her with a gunshot wound to the back, Candace said. Many of the students were screaming and crying for their parents. They could still hear the steady sound of gunfire outside, she said.

In surgery, doctors removed a bullet from Candace; it had penetrated little more than skin.

“It’s a miracle,” said her mother, Kim Porter. “The surgeon said the Lord grabbed her and turned her just the right way.”

Candace planned to return to school today for the first time since the shooting.

“I’m never going outside again,” she said. “I’ll go out for recess, but not for a fire alarm.”

At Jonesboro churches Sunday, pastors urged forgiveness and praised the hundreds of behind-the-scenes helpers who had given their time, talents and treasures since a deadly school shooting shattered the community’s morale.

At Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, little girls handed stones to arriving parishioners.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” preached Deacon Victor J. Stepka. “We must use authority at least to try to understand and mend the person who has made a mistake.”

At the First Baptist Church, the Rev. Bruce Tippit paused for a moment of public affirmation for the doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians in his church who helped treat the wounded outside Westside Middle School.