Shooting suspects stole guns, van

But his grandson did not confess to killing four classmates and a teacher, saying he couldn't recall what happened, Doug Golden told The Associated Press yesterday.

"He told me he fired some shots," said Golden, who talked to his grandson, Andrew Golden, with police in jail after Tuesday's shooting.

"He said he shot at a car on the parking lot but 'I don't remember anything after that,'" said Golden, the manager of a wildlife area.

A Juvenile Court judge on yesterday ordered Andrew and his alleged accomplice, 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson, held until an April 29 hearing. The two are charged with five counts of murder and 10 counts of battery. They did not enter a plea.

After he heard about the shootings at Westside Middle School, Doug Golden drove from hospital to hospital fearing Andrew might be among the wounded. Instead, he was directed to the sheriff's office.

"After we got out to the jail and found him, they brought the guns in and I recognized them," he said.

Golden said the boy then admitted stealing three rifles, four handguns and several boxes of ammunition from his house.

His grandson had his own weapons, Golden said, including a shotgun, two rifles, a crossbow and a bow, but didn't know the combination to the steel vault at his house where they were kept, so he and Mitchell tried breaking in.

"We were told the other boy brought a torch and hammer and some other tools to try to break into the gun vault and they couldn't do it," he said.

So the two broke into his house and took the rifles from a gunrack and found pistols that were hid "all over the house," Golden said.

The boys, who had skipped school Tuesday, also took a white van from Mitchell's house and parked it near the school, Golden said. Police said the boys shot from a wooded hill at the rear of the school.

Golden said the guns taken from his house were a 30.06 rifle and a .44-caliber Magnum with scopes and a World War II vintage .33-caliber carbine. Also stolen were a pair of small semiautomatic pistols, a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver and a .22-caliber Magnum two-barrel Derringer that didn't work.

Police say they recovered a 30.06 rifle and a .44-caliber rifle after tackling the boys - dressed head-to-toe in camouflage - as they ran away from the school toward the van.

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