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Published On: Thu, Jan 31st, 2013

Jimmy Lee Dykes, Alabama man holding an autistic child hostage, enters day 3 of standoff with police

Police negotiators are still trying to bargain with an Alabama gunman, more than 48 hours after he abducted a five-year-old boy from his school bus and is holding him hostage in his underground bunker.

The suspect, Jimmy Lee Dykes, age 65, who also allegedly shot dead the driver of the bus when he tried to protect the children, is being described as a ‘paranoid survivalist’ with ‘anti-American views’.

Chuck Poland is being described as the hero who tried to stop Dykes, protect 21 studnets, but was shot by the kidnapper.

Charles Poland is being described as the hero who tried to stop Dykes, protect 21 studnets, but was shot by the kidnapper.

He is fiercely protective of his property in rural Midland City, Alabama.

Neighbors said he beat one of their dogs to death with a pipe after it ran onto his land and pulled a gun on the the man who lives next door and his daughter after a dispute over a speed bump.

The boy, named Ethan known to his mother as Love Bug, is autistic, authorities have said.

Dykes has allowed police to pass his medication and crayons through a PVC pipe that supplies air to the underground bunker.

“The negotiators are still communicating with the suspect,” Robyn Bradley Litchfield, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Public Safety, told the Reuters Thursday afternoon.

“He doesn’t want to hurt the child. He didn’t take the child to hurt him,” said the former negotiator, Clint Van Zandt, also an analyst for MSNBC. “The child is simply the means to keep law enforcement from crashing into his bunker right now.”

He added: “Time is on the side of the negotiator.”

One report suggested it could still be a long wait.

James Arrington, police chief of the nearby town of Pinckard, told The Birmingham News that Dykes has been known to stay in his bunker as long as eight days.

The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, has been hailed as a hero.

The county school system said 21 children made it off the bus alive, and NBC station WSFA reported that the boy may have been captured after he was murdered by Dykes.

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- Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites. Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor. To Contact Brandon email [email protected] ATTN: BRANDON

Displaying 5 Comments
Have Your Say
  1. FBI using drones to fly over and ‘study’ Jimmy Lee Dykes bunker - The Global Dispatch says:

    […] An ABC report revealed some more details of Jimmy Lee Dykes attacking an Alabama school bus of students, threatening them before taking Ethan hostage and killing the driver Charles Poland. […]

  2. Jimmy Lee Dykes, Alabama kidnapper, threatened to ‘kill us all,’ says student on bus - The Global Dispatch says:

    […] Lee Dykes, the retired Alabama trucker who shot and killed school bus driver Charles Poland last week and has held a 5-year-old boy hostage (named Ethan) in his underground bunker for seven […]

  3. Alabama hostage crisis ends, Jimmy Lee Dykes dead, Ethan free and doing well - The Global Dispatch says:

    […] The 5-year-old kindergartner, Etha, who has Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was taken off a school bus Tuesday after police report Dykes killed the driver, Charles Poland. […]

  4. Authorities still negotiating with Jimmy Lee Sykes as Alabama hostage crisis hits day five - The Global Dispatch says:

    […] said Saturday that they still have an open line of communication with an Alabama man accused of abducting a 5-year-old boy and holding him hostage in a bunker, after he shot…during the […]

  5. Sarah says:

    prayers go out to this little boy and his family. I don’t understand how someone could do something so horrible to a child, or anyone. especially a 5 year old with special needs..

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