A law enforcement source says initial reports indicate that a five-year-old boy who was being held hostage in an underground bunker in Alabama for nearly a week has been released.
Authorities say 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes shot and killed a bus driver last week in Midland City and then abducted the boy.
Dykes is now dead, the source says, but the boy is in stable condition. An ambulance was seen leaving the area of the bunker.
We’re glad to hear that unidentified young man is safe, and will be keeping an eye on the situation as new details continue to emerge. Officials have not yet released Dykes’ cause of death, though its possible that such an announcement could take place during a press conference scheduled this afternoon.
The gunman stormed into the school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded that the driver hand him a child.
The driver, 66-year-old Charles Poland Jr., was a gentle Bible-reading man who could not stand to discipline the children on his bus because it hurt his heart, the Dothan Eagle newspaper reported.
When he refused the demand, police said, the gunman shot him several times as 22 horrified children scrambled for cover.
But the man was able to grab the boy and drag him to his underground bunker.
And the standoff began.
Jimmy Lee Dykes, the 65-year-old man who reportedly took the boy hostage, is said to be a survivalist with anti-government views. He reportedly spent months building the tunnel on his property and was due in court over a property dispute earlier in the week. (WTF dude?)
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