2 years ago
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"He could be the type of person that could do something like this," says Johnson's former classmate Reggie Tucker.
Tucker graduated from ASU Beebe in White County, but during the 2007 spring semester Tucker had two or three computer technology classes with 50-year-old Timothy Dale Johnson, the man who murdered Bill Gwatney.
Tucker explains, "He was socially awkward and made weird comments that kind of gave you pause but didn't make you think he is going to come after us you know."
Tucker says they were disturbing comments like about his Russian mail order bride.
"It was something that would just come up out of the blue. We weren't even talking to him, and he said he had been talking to her online and he was thinking about bringing her to America."
In years past, Johnson has voted in both Republican and Democratic primaries in White County.
Tucker says he and other classmates do recall Johnson being vocal about his views.
"I would always remember going to class and I would see that he had a Bill Clinton anti-campaign sticker [on his car] that says I don't miss Bill. "He would surf the internet and he would see that a Democrat had died and he would laugh about it."
Possible clues, Tucker says, about why Johnson targeted Bill Gwatney, Arkansas Democratic party chairman
"I would like to have a motive. That is why I contacted you in the e-mail because no one has shown that he went to school at ASU Beebe, and he spends a lot of time there. Maybe he talked to somebody, or maybe somebody could get in his mind that might come forward and talk about it," Tucker explains.
Johnson took classes in the Computer Systems and Networking Technology Department at ASU Beebe.
School officials confirm that Johnson attended last Spring and he was enrolled for this fall. He was scheduled to start classes Aug. 25.
ASU Beebe officials do not have record of any unusual incidents with him.
Police say nothing taken from Johnson's home showed he was Democratic or Republican.
Gwatney died Wednesday after a gunman burst into the state Democratic Party headquarters and shot him. The suspect, Timothy Dale Johnson of Searcy, was shot dead by police after a 30-mile chase into Grant County.
Click the link under the picture to see the items taken from Johnson's home.
