Reuters: U.S.: Boy held hostage in Alabama bunker for third day: officials

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Boy held hostage in Alabama bunker for third day: officials Feb 1st 2013, 01:14 1 of 6. Law enforcement officials from the FBI work the scene of a shooting and hostage taking in Midland City, Alabama, January 31, 2013. A gunman suspected of fatally shooting an Alabama school bus driver before holing up in an underground bunker with a young child is a Vietnam veteran with anti-government views, authorities and an organization that tracks hate groups said. Credit: Reuters/Phil Sears By Phil Sears MIDLAND CITY, Alabama | Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:14pm EST MIDLAND CITY, Alabama (Reuters) - A hostage-taking by an Alabama man accused of fatally shooting a school bus driver and then forcing a young boy into an underground bunker entered its third night with no new developments to report, authorities said on Thursday. Law enforcement officials remained tight-lipped about the standoff near Midland City, a small town in the southeast corner of Alabama, after cancelling a planned news conference. Officials from local, state and federal agencies have been camped out by a dirt road near the bunker since Tuesday, when authorities say a gunman demanded that a student be let off a bus carrying more than 20 children home from school. When 66-year-old driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. refused, the suspect shot him several times and fled the scene with a kindergarten student whom he appeared to have grabbed at random, officials said. On Thursday, negotiators continued to communicate with the gunman as he remained holed up with the 5-year-old on his rural property. Area schools were closed for the remainder of the week, and residents held vigils to pray for a peaceful end to the standoff. A scheduled evening press conference was canceled, with law enforcement officials saying they had nothing new to report. Michael Senn, a pastor, said the suspect, identified by neighbors as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, apparently had equipped the bunker with electricity, TV and two to three weeks' worth of supplies. Authorities have not officially released the names of the suspected gunman or the child, who they believe is unharmed. "We're just encouraging everybody in this country to come together and pray for the safety, protection and the quick release of this child," Senn said. The shooting and hostage scenario happened while a national debate rages over gun violence, especially in schools, after a gunman shot dead 20 students and six staff members at a Connecticut elementary school in December. An Alabama lawmaker who had talked with the hostage's family said on a TV interview that they were "holding on by a thread" but comforted that the boy appeared to be receiving needed medication while held captive. The suspect and boy, who turns 6 next week, apparently did not know each other before the shooting, said state Representative Steve Clouse. "I think it's just a random kidnapping here for this man," Clouse said. GUNMAN MISSED TRIAL FOR MENACING CHARGE Neighbors said they had seen Dykes digging the bunker in his yard in the past couple of years, and recalled he often carried a shotgun and acted aggressively toward people and animals. Ronda Wilbur, who lives across the street from Dykes, referred to him as "Mean Man" and complained he had killed her family dog by beating it with a lead pipe and then bragged about it to her husband. Dykes had been due to appear for a bench trial on Wednesday after his arrest last month on a menacing charge involving another neighbor, court records showed. The neighbor, James Edward Davis, told CNN the arrest stemmed from an incident on December 10 when Dykes pulled a gun on him and his young daughter. Davis said Dykes was upset because he believed Davis had driven onto his property. Dykes' decision to take a child hostage in an underground bunker made the tense situation confronting police even more complex, said Brad Garrett, a former hostage negotiator for the FBI. "Usually they can utilize cameras to see into buildings, but with a bunker - with impenetrable walls and one way in and one way out - that's not possible," said Garrett, who now runs an investigative consulting firm based in Virginia. "It reduces a tactical team's ability to use the element of surprise," he added. The adult children of the slain school bus driver remembered their father, a military veteran, as a quiet man who avoided the limelight and would have shirked at being called a hero for trying to keep the students on his bus out of harm's way. "My dad would be like, 'what's all this fuss about? I just did what I had to do,'" son Aaron Poland said on Thursday. "My dad died to protect the children." (Additional reporting by Kaija Wilkinson; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Tom Brown and Eric Walsh) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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