Vietnam Vet Jimmy Lee Dykes Fatally Shoots Bus Driver Charles A. Poland Jr, Kidnaps 5 Year Old Ethan Gilman And Holds Him Hostage In Underground Bunker UPDATE: Child OK!!, Gunman DEAD!

A "significant development" has taken place in the Alabama hostage crisis, according to the FBI. Press briefing soon.
BREAKING NEWS ON CNN!
Dykes is dead, child is alive. Presser soon on CNN!

A week-long Alabama standoff in which a retired trucker held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker has ended, according to law enforcement sources.
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Published February 04, 2013
FoxNews.com
DEVELOPING: 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.
The FBI said in a statement Sunday that authorities were having open lines of communication with Dykes. The little boy requested Cheez-Its and a red Hot Wheels car, both of which were delivered to the bunker, a separate statement said. Authorities had said they also were delivering medicine and other comfort items, and that Dykes was making the child as comfortable as possible.
On Sunday, more than 500 people paid final tribute to the driver that was killed, 66-year-old Charles Albert Poland Jr., hailing him as a hero for protecting the other children on the bus.
Poland is now "an angel who is watching over" the little boy, said Dale County School Superintendent Donny Bynum, who read letters written by three students who had ridden on Poland's bus. "You didn't deserve to die but you died knowing you kept everyone safe," one child wrote.
Outside the funeral, school buses from several counties lined the funeral procession route. The buses had black ribbons tied to their side mirrors.
Dykes grew up in the Dothan area. Mel Adams, a Midland City Council member who owns the lot where reporters are gathered, said he has known Dykes since they were ages 3 and 4.
He said Dykes has a sister and a brother, but that he is estranged from his family.
Adams said he didn't know what caused the falling-out, but that he knew Dykes "had told part of his family to go to hell."
Dykes, also described as a loner who railed against the government, lives up a dirt road outside this tiny hamlet north of Dothan in the southeast corner of the state. His home is just off the main road north to the state capital of Montgomery, about 80 miles away.
Government records and interviews with neighbors indicate that Dykes grew up in the Dothan area and joined the Navy in Midland City, serving on active duty from 1964 to 1969. His record shows several awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. During his service, Dykes was trained in aviation maintenance.
At some point after his time in the Navy, Dykes lived in Florida, where he worked as a surveyor and a long-haul truck driver. It's unclear how long he stayed there.
He had some scrapes with the law there, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanor was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.
Dykes returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbors, Michael Creel and his father, Greg.
"He said he lived in Florida and had hurricanes hit. He wanted someplace he could go down in and be safe," Creel said. Authorities say the bunker is about 6 feet by 8 feet, and the only entrance is a trap door at the top.
Neighbors described Dykes as a man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property, and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm. Michael Creel said Dykes had an adult daughter, but the two lost touch years ago.
The Dykes property has a white trailer which, according to Creel, Dykes said he bought from FEMA after it was used to house evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. The property also has a steel shipping container -- like those on container ships -- in which Dykes stores tools and supplies.
Next to the container is the underground bunker where authorities say Dykes holed up with the 5-year-old. Neighbors say that the bunker has a pipe so Dykes could hear people coming near his driveway. Authorities were using the ventilation pipe to communicate with him.
The mother of the 5-year-old boy was 'hanging on by a thread,' said a local politician who visited the woman during the standoff.
State Rep. Steve Clouse, who represents the Midland City area, said the mother told him that the boy has Asperger's syndrome as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

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Official: Hostage standoff ends with kidnapper dead, child safe

By Victor Blackwell, Martin Savidge and Carol Cratty, CNN
updated 5:17 PM EST, Mon February 4, 2013

NEW: Kidnapper is dead, child is safe, authorities in Alabama say
Midland City schools are still closed; schools in neighboring Ozark reopened Monday
A sheriff says deliveries of food, medication and other comfort items continue
Police have said little else about what's happening in the underground bunker
Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- A six-day hostage standoff came to an end Monday when a man holed up a bunker was found dead and police recovered the 5-year-old he abducted, according to a law enforcement official.
The child appeared to be OK emerging from the ordeal, the official said.
Two ambulances left the scene shortly before 4 p.m. (5 p.m. ET).
Last Tuesday, police say, Jimmy Lee Dykes boarded a Dale County school bus and demanded the driver hand over two children.

Suspect Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, is a Vietnam War veteran and retired truck driver.
Fmr. negotiator: Chances are good Child may have bonded with abductor
The driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., refused, blocking access to the bus's narrow aisle as at least 21 children escaped out of the back emergency door, authorities said.
Police say the gunman killed Poland, then grabbed a kindergartner before barricading himself and the boy inside a nearby bunker he had built.
In the ensuing days, officials said little about what was going on in the bunker or in their strategy, or what -- if anything -- Dykes wanted.
"Based on our discussions with Mr. Dykes, he feels like he has a story that's important to him, although it's very complex," Dale County Sherriff Wally Olson said Monday before the hostage situation ended. He didn't elaborate.
An FBI spokesman said Sunday that authorities continue "to maintain an open line of communication with Mr. Dykes."
The boy suffers from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit disorder, State. Rep. Steve Clouse said.
Dykes told authorities that he had blankets and a heater in the bunker, and authorities have previously said the bunker -- built 4 feet underground -- has electricity.
Authorities hadn't said how they were communicating with Dykes.
Meanwhile, residents and business owners in Midland City put up blue, red and black ribbons in support of the boy and Poland. Blue and red are the local school colors, and black is in honor of the slain bus driver.
The U.S. Navy confirmed Monday that Dykes served in the military from 1964 to 1969.
Naval records list him as an aviation maintenance administrationman third-class who served with units based in California and Atsugi, Japan. The job entails clerical work related to aircraft and aircraft maintenance, according to the Navy's job description.
Neighbors and officials had described Dykes as a survivalist with "anti-government" views.
Even as the hostage situation continued Monday morning, plenty of police were on hand as schools in neighboring Ozark, Alabama, reopened for the first time since the incident began.
Dale County schools remained closed but were to reopen on Tuesday, the district said.
In Ozark, school officials decided to begin strictly enforcing a 15-foot safety zone around school buses required by state law. The law prohibits any unauthorized adults, including parents, from approaching within 15 feet of a school bus stop. If an unauthorized adult gets too close, bus drivers are supposed to close bus doors or drive away, if necessary, school officials said.
The abduction had rattled the nerves of many parents, said Rebecca Jules-McQuet, whose 5-year-old daughter returned to school Monday.
"You think about it every night when you go to bed that that little boy is not in his bed, with his mom and dad," she said. "It's heart-wrenching.

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presser on NOW CNN

It was also on HLN. To my knowledge they have not said how he died.

Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- A 5-year-old child abducted from a school bus six days ago is safe and his kidnapper is dead, ending a nearly week-long ordeal for a little boy, his family and a small Alabama town.
The child appeared to be OK when he was freed, law enforcement officials said. Alabama state Rep. Steve Clouse told CNN that the boy was taken to a hospital in nearby Dothan.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson at the scene said negotiations had broken down with the child's abductor and the kidnapper was "observed holding a gun."
Believing the child to be in imminent danger, an FBI team entered the bunker at 3:12 p.m. CT (4:12 p.m. ET) and rescued the boy, Richardson said, adding that the hostage-taker is dead.
One neighbor said he was outside when he was startled by the sound of an explosion.
"I heard a big boom and then ... I believe I heard rifle shots," said Bryon Martin, who owns a home near the bunker where the boy had been held since Tuesday.
It was a loud noise that "made me jump off the ground," he said.

snipped:
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Oh Thank the Lord I saw on the news he was dead but missed that Ethan was ok!!! I knew this was where I needed to be for the answers!!!

You are home Slys and now have the wonderful news!!!!!

Amen, sisters!!

Thank God he is OK..this news broke right after that other murdering, lying slut got on the stand.

aww shit I wanst expecting anything big in that case im going to look now...

Alabama hostage standoff ends with child safe, gunman dead

Mon, Feb 4 2013
By Sharon Reich and Verna Gates
MIDLAND CITY, Alabama | Mon Feb 4, 2013 10:58pm EST
(Reuters) - U.S. authorities stormed an underground bunker in rural Alabama on Monday, rescuing a 5-year-old boy held hostage for nearly a week and leaving his kidnapper dead. WHY didn't they do this from the get-go? And, did THEY kill the nutjob or did he take his life???

After a standoff of more than six days, FBI agents entered the bunker when they feared the child was in "imminent danger" at the hands of his abductor, who had killed a school bus driver, said Steve Richardson, special agent in charge in Mobile, Alabama.

The kidnapper, identified as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, had previously allowed authorities to deliver medication, coloring books and toys to the kindergarten student, who is due to celebrate his birthday on Wednesday.

But negotiations deteriorated in the 24 hours before agents entered the bunker, Richardson told a news conference.

"Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun," the FBI agent said.

Law enforcement officials would not confirm on Monday how Dykes died.

The standoff gripped a rural corner of southeast Alabama with dread, shuttering local schools and prompting prayers and vigils for the boy identified only as Ethan.

By all accounts, Dykes had taken him from the bus at random, reinforcing concerns that have been raised about U.S. school safety and gun violence since the December shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school.

"It just shows you how close it can come," one of Dykes' neighbors, 42-year-old Angie Adams, said of the violence, adding she now plans one day to home school her 2-year-old daughter.

"We waited 10 years to have her and we would be devastated" if something happened, Adams said.

The drama near Midland City began when Dykes, a retired trucker who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War era, boarded a school bus ferrying more than 20 children home last Tuesday and demanded that the driver let a student off the bus, according to authorities.

PHYSICALLY UNHARMED

When driver Charles Albert Poland, 66, refused, Dykes shot him four times with a 9 mm handgun, local sheriff's department officials said.

"To Mr. Poland's family, we would like to express our condolences," Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said. "Also our appreciation to a hero who through his brave actions saved many lives."

Dykes fled with the child to a homemade bunker equipped with a television and electric heaters on the man's property off a dirt road. Authorities would not confirm news reports that said negotiators had remained in contact with Dykes by talking through a PVC pipe connected to the underground shelter.

The child was being treated at a local hospital but appeared physically unharmed, Richardson said. He is said to suffer from Asperger's Syndrome and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

"He's laughing, joking, playing, eating," Richardson said. "He's very brave. He's very lucky."

A local law enforcement source said a stun or flash grenade was detonated as part of the operation to free the boy, but further details were not immediately released.

Late on Monday, bomb technicians were clearing the crime scene and looking for explosives, said FBI Special Agent Jason Pack. Authorities said the investigation could take days to complete.

Law enforcement officials offered few insights about Dykes and their negotiations with him before the rescue.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said the gunman had a "very complex" story to tell.

"Based on our discussion with Mr. Dykes, he feels like he has a story that's important to him, although it's very complex," Olson said, without elaborating.

According to neighbors, the reclusive Dykes moved into the Midland City area about two years ago and was often seen patrolling the property where he lived in a trailer with a gun and flashlight at night.

He had been due to appear for a trial before a judge last Wednesday after his recent arrest on a menacing charge involving one of his neighbors.

Another neighbor, who said he grew up with Dykes and also served in the Navy around the same time, suspected the court case might have sparked his unraveling.

"When he kidnapped those kids, he was afraid of losing his property, his rights, his freedom and going to jail," said Mel Adams, who owns a used car lot.

But, Adams added, "We had no idea on Earth he would turn into a monster like this."

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updated 5:36 PM EST, Tue February 5, 2013

Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- An Alabama mother awoke Tuesday to what she will forever remember as "the most beautiful sight ... my sweet boy."
For almost a week, her 5-year-old son Ethan had been held by a kidnapper until an FBI team rescued him Monday afternoon.
Mother and child were reunited at a hospital.
"I can't describe how incredible it is to hold him again," the mother, who has not been publicly named, said in a written statement. "Ethan is safe and back in my arms, and I owe it all to some of the most compassionate people on Earth."
The FBI sent in a hostage rescue team after negotiations broke down with hostage-taker Jimmy Lee Dykes.
A law enforcement source told CNN that Dykes was contentious with authorities from the very beginning of the nearly week-long standoff, but conversations deteriorated rapidly toward the end. The source said investigators talked with Dykes on the phone, exploring several different strategies to resolve the situation, without success.
"The team kept going back to the same place -- that they had to go in and get Ethan," the source said.
They knew the rescue might be difficult.
"Dykes built this bunker specifically for law enforcement not to get in and him to not get out," the source said.
Law enforcement officers were able to see what was going on inside the underground bunker where the was held hostage with a camera they somehow slipped into the hideout, a law enforcement official said.
FBI sources said surveillance drones constantly monitored the situation from above.
As the standoff dragged on, an FBI hostage rescue team practiced on a nearby mockup of the bunker until kidnapper Dykes' declining mental state forced them to move in Monday afternoon, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.
The resulting assault -- from the top of the bunker, according to another law enforcement source -- ended with Dykes dead and Ethan free.
The other law enforcement official wouldn't say what exactly was done to get into bunker, but the FBI team didn't go in through the hatch.
Authorities took Ethan to the hospital for evaluation, where he remained Tuesday.
"He was running around the hospital room, putting sticky notes on everyone who was in there, eating a turkey sandwich and watching 'Spongebob'," Dale County Schools Superintendent Ronny Bynum said.
It was not immediately clear when Ethan might be released, according to school officials.
Authorities said Dykes abducted the young boy from a school bus January 29.
Dykes approached the bus and demanded that the driver hand over two children. Dykes killed driver Charles Poland as he blocked the aisle -- allowing children to escape from the back of the bus, then seized Ethan and fled to the bunker, according to authorities.
Late Alabama bus driver called a hero
During the ensuing standoff, authorities were extraordinarily tight-lipped about what was happening, but said they were in contact with Dykes and said they believed he had not harmed the boy. He also allowed authorities to deliver food, medicine and at least one toy for the boy to play with, according to authorities.
The details about the law enforcement response to his abduction are the first provided by authorities about how they knew what was going on inside the bunker and why they decided to move when they did.
But many questions remain, including whether the Defense Department provided sensing equipment to aid in monitoring what was happening inside the bunker and why Dykes acted as he did.
"A big boom"
At one point Monday, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson told reporters that Dykes had "a story that's important to him, although it's very complex."
But according to a law enforcement source, Dykes' mental state deteriorated in the 24 hours before the Monday afternoon rescue.
Experts from FBI units, including a crisis negotiation team, tactical intelligence officers and a behavioral sciences unit, had determined Dykes was in a downward psychological spiral, the source said.
At 3:12 p.m. (4:12 ET) on Monday, the FBI team went in.
One neighbor said he was outside when he was startled by the sound of an explosion.
"I heard a big boom and then ... I believe I heard rifle shots," said Bryon Martin, who owns a home near the bunker where Ethan had been held.
It was a loud noise that "made me jump off the ground," he said.
Authorities wouldn't say whether the blast was set off as a diversionary tactic or whether Dykes had planted explosives around the bunker.
While the law enforcement source said FBI agents went in through the top of the bunker, the source declined to say specifically how they breached the roof, how many agents were involved or whether Dykes shot himself or was killed by FBI gunfire.
A Dale County official told CNN that Dykes had been shot multiple times. The body remains "in the area" and will be examined by the county coroner before it is taken to Montgomery, Alabama, for autopsy by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, the official said.
Olson declined to say whether the boy saw his abductor die.
"He's a very special child. He's been through a lot, he's endured a lot," he said.
Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director, said the rescue likely was complicated by the layout and materials used to build the underground bunker.
Rescuers would have had to come down stairs, exposing their legs and meaning Dykes would see them first, he said. And if there were brick walls, the FBI agents would have to shoot carefully to guard against ricochets.
All that after probably tossing in a flash grenade to stun the kidnapper.
"The FBI hostage rescue team is the best in the world and they proved it yesterday," said Fuentes, who was not involved in Monday's rescue.
A law enforcement source would neither confirm nor deny that a flash grenade was used.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder praised law enforcement for saving the boy.
"I thought the FBI action on this was exemplary and as I think details are shared, you will understand why I use the word exemplary," he said.
Bynum, the school superintendent, said FBI agents broke down in "tears of joy" after the rescue was complete.
"It was a relief on all our shoulders," he said.
The aftermath
FBI bomb technicians were sweeping Dykes' property Tuesday looking for explosives, according to FBI spokesman Jason Pack. Evidence teams will take over when they are done, Pack said.
While authorities have not said whether Dykes killed himself or if the team that stormed the bunker shot him, the FBI is sending a "shooting review board" from Washington to look into the incident, Pack said.
Olson said Tuesday he could not release much information about the case.
"It's still actually an ongoing investigation, and we still have a lot of work to do here," the sheriff said.
Meanwhile, students in Dale County returned to school. State officials brought in a bus to replace the one Poland had been driving, state school transportation director Joe Lightsey said. Not all of the kids on Poland's route were back on the bus Tuesday, Lightsey said, but those who were seemed upbeat and ready to get back to class.
"A friendly kid"
While Ethan recuperated Tuesday from his ordeal, school officials began planning a party to celebrate the boy's birthday and to honor Poland, the bus driver hailed by school officials as a hero.
While the party won't be ready by Ethan's 6th birthday, which is Wednesday, it will be held soon -- likely at the Dale County High School football stadium, Bynum said.
Ethan's elementary school principal, Phillip Parker, said teachers are eager to have him back and "wrap their arms around him."
"Everybody knows Ethan. He's a good kid, a friendly kid," Parker said.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson said Monday that Ethan was in a private area of the hospital, with heavy security.
"He is doing fine," said Richardson, who had visited the boy. "He's laughing, joking, playing, eating."
What's next for Ethan?
Relief that Ethan was safe was palpable in Midland City, but many questions remain about what comes next for him.
How does a 5-year-old heal from this ordeal? How does a youngster go on after witnessing his bus driver shot to death, then being dragged to an underground bunker by a gun-toting stranger? How will he deal with what he experienced the six days he languished in that hole and what he saw during the explosive rescue Monday that killed his captor?
"It's very hard to tell how he's going to do," said Dr. Louis Krause, a psychiatrist at Chicago's Rush Medical Center. "On the one hand, he might get right back to his routine and do absolutely fine. But on the other hand, the anxieties, the trauma, what we call an acute stress disorder, even post-traumatic stress symptoms, can occur."
A psychologist said even if Ethan appears to be doing well on the outside, he needs to talk out what happened to him. Hoping the 5-year-old will forget what happened would be a bad strategy, said Wendy Walsh.
"That's not actually good because when you start to forget, some traumatic events they get stored in your body as feelings that crop up at strange times in your life," she said. "It is better to process it, get some therapy."
When terrible things happen: Helping children heal
Someone who knows all too well what Ethan may go through is Katie Beers, who as a 10-year-old was held underground in a concrete bunker for two weeks by a New York man.
"I am ecstatic that Ethan has been retrieved safe and sound," said Beers, who recently released a book about her abduction. "As for my ordeal, I just keep thinking about the effects of it: being deprived sunlight, nutritious food and human contact. And how much I wanted to have a nutritious meal, see my family."
Beers says she still feels the effects of her kidnapping.
"The major issue that I have is control issues with my kids and finances," she said. "I don't like my kids being out of my sight for more than two seconds. And I think that that might get worse as they get older."
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A Dale County official told CNN that Dykes had been shot multiple times. The body remains "in the area" and will be examined by the county coroner before it is taken to Montgomery, Alabama, for autopsy by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, the official said.

While authorities have not said whether Dykes killed himself or if the team that stormed the bunker shot him, the FBI is sending a "shooting review board" from Washington to look into the incident, Pack said.
Olson said Tuesday he could not release much information about the case.

Keywords above: Dykes had been shot multiple times. That leads me to believe the FBI shot him..that he did not take his own life. Just hope Ethan didn't see this but he most likely did.

Again, my EXACT thoughts when I read that! I don't care who killed Dykes but I so hope they had managed to distract Ethan enough w/ the flash/bangs and had been able to grab him up and out so he did not witness this. For all we know after a week he probably had some kind of relationship w/ Dykes. I have a feeling Dykes did treat him OK or he wouldn't be as well adjusted as we're hearing he is now. You know what I mean, like stockholm syndrome. MOO.

Dykes fired on the FBI Agents first..they fired back. (in above video).

Little Ethan is a cutie. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ETHAN!!

To me this just seems wrong that his mom would drag him on National TV after the ordeal he has already been through. Especially with Dr. Phil who I have little respect for. She should take Ethan to a real psychiatrist and not be turning this into more of a publicity stunt, IMO.

Video of mom and Ethan with Dr. Phil:
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I do agree Sam. Had Ethan not been shown at all then I would feel much better about it. The only plus I can see is that he'll get expert therapy and so will the Mom.

Here are excerpts from the interview. I completely agree with both of you.

THE mother of an Alabama boy held hostage in an underground bunker for days says her son witnessed officers fatally shoot his kidnapper.

Jennifer Kirkland's comments about her son, Ethan, came in an interview with Dr Phil McGraw for the Dr Phil Show. It's set to be aired tomorrow.

In a promotional clip posted online, Ms Kirkland said her 6-year-old son saw officers shoot the gunman identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, of Midland City, Alabama.

"He says, 'The Army came in and shot the bad man,'" Ms Kirkland said.

The FBI said agents wearing combat gear entered Dykes' bunker on the sixth day of the standoff in southeast Alabama. Dykes was shot multiple times, a coroner said.
Authorities said Dykes shot and killed Ethan's school bus driver before grabbing the child off the bus and taking him into an underground shelter constructed on his rural property.

Ethan wasn't physically injured, but his mother said he has had a difficult time sleeping, and she is worried about him.

"I'm scared of how he's going to take getting on a bus," she said.

Ms Kirkland said she wanted to swap places with her son during the standoff but wasn't allowed to. It wasn't clear in the promotional excerpt whether she made a formal offer to Dykes.

"I wanted to be there," said Ms Kirkland.
Authorities have said they might never know why Dykes shot driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, and took the boy off the bus on Jan. 29.

Dykes was due in court the day after the standoff began for a hearing on a menacing case filed in December. Neighbours say he fired a gun at them. Neighbours and acquaintances described Dykes as having strong feelings against the government.
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Jennifer Kirkland in a screen grab from her appearance on The Dr Phil Show.

Ethan Kirkland, seen here in a screen grab from The Dr Phil Show, has spoken the TV doctor about his time held captive in a bunker.

Ethan will live with that memory for the rest of his life. It w/be more difficult for him because of his ADD and Aspergers.

The Mom also said Ethan is BiPolar. Dr Phil questioned that, said he's awfully young for such a label and there's a place in TX that he wants to send him to for a complete physical and psychological work up. I forget the name of the place but Dr Frank Lawless either owns it or runs it. That's another good thing that came out of this TV appearance. But I still say Ethan should not have been on TV or if he was his face shouldn't have been. JMOO.

Dr Phil certainly IS NOT my favorite person, forgot to add that!

Nor mine, but he has his moments. My favorite is: "You cannot change what you don't acknowledge".

DOTHAN, Alabama -- Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said hostage-taker Jimmy Lee Dykes began planning the kidnapping weeks before he boarded the school bus on Jan. 29 in Midland City.

Olson spoke about the seven-day hostage situation where then 5-year-old Ethan was taken from his school bus and the bus driver shot and killed at the regular meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Dothan on Tuesday, according to a Dothan Eagle report.

Olson said Dykes began speaking with bus driver Charles Poland weeks prior. Dykes had cleared a path on his property to allow the school bus to turn around.

“His plan was he befriended Mr. Poland. Mr. Poland really thought Mr. Dykes was helping him by creating that area to turn the bus around, but he did that for a reason,” Olson said in the meeting, according to the Dothan Eagle. “He’d been well into building that bunker for over a year. It was pretty well planned.”

Dykes called 911 shortly after kidnapping Ethan, Olson said. Police were told to communicate with him through a PVC pipe that protruded from the bunker. The pipe and the bunker contained an improvised explosive device.
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May 31, 2013


Jimmy Lee Dykes
The demands of a crazed gunman who took a five-year-old boy hostage for six days in an Alabama bunker have been heard for the first time, in newly released recordings.
In a recording taken from a surveillance tape on the school bus that Jimmy Lee Dykes held up, he can be heard demanding to be given two children.

Charles Poland, the driver, bravely refuses to hand over the children, telling Dykes: 'It's my responsibility to keep these kids on the bus,' before he is shot dead.

As well as the school bus drama, the recordings, aired exclusively by ABC News on Friday, include conversations between Dykes and FBI agents as he kept five-year-old Ethan Gilman captive, surrounded by weapons and explosives.

Days of tense talks between federal authorities and the 65-year-old included Dykes cursing at negotiators and ranting that his stand with his five-year-old hostage, who has autism, would cause 'chaos' in society and lead to riots, the recordings reveal.

'People are going be standing up to this [expletive] dictatorial, incompetent, self-righteous, bunch of sorry bastards in government,' Dykes said.

Members of an FBI hostage rescue team stormed Dykes's underground bunker near Midland City in February, killing him before he harmed Ethan or detonated an improvised explosive that authorities said was in the 6ft by 8ft shelter.

In interviews with ABC, FBI agents said they raided the bunker after it became apparent that Dykes was handling weapons and an improvised explosive device more often than he had been at the beginning of the standoff.

Dykes apparently planned to have the child detonate the bomb if he was killed, FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said.

'Jim Dykes relayed to the negotiators, "If anything happens to me, I have told Ethan to pull the trigger",' Mr Richardson said. 'That meant he had told Ethan to detonate the IED, the second IED that was inside the bunker.'

Dykes snatched Ethan off a school bus driven by Mr Poland, 66, in January, dragging the child into the bunker after shooting Mr Poland five times in front of the scared children.

The audio recording, taken from a bus surveillance tape, indicated that after Dykes boarded the bus he immediately demanded children.

'I need two boys 6 to 8 years old,' Dykes, who was armed with a handgun, is heard saying angrily in the recording. 'Six to 8 years old. I mean it. Right now! Right now!'

Mr Poland bravely refused, saying: 'I can't do it. Sorry, you're going to have to shoot me.'

Charles Poland
'How about I shoot a kid then,' Dykes replied.

Moments after Dykes boarded the bus 15-year-old Tre' Watts called 911, telling the woman who answered there was a man on their bus.

'He's got a gun,' Tre' can be heard saying. 'And he keeps asking for kids.'

The dispatcher asks: 'He's aiming the gun at the bus driver?'

Muffled gun shots and the sound of screaming can then be heard as the dispatcher asks: 'Oh my gosh, what's going on?'

'He just shot Mr. Poland,' Tre' tells her. 'I think Mr. Poland is dead.'

The 66-year-old driver had been shot five times. He was hailed as a hero for protecting more than two dozen children on the bus.

After he shot Mr Poland, Dykes grabbed Ethan and headed to the bunker he had constructed.



Once there, he used a phone and a pipe to communicate with authorities. The recordings show he was disdainful of government and taunted negotiators with obscenities.

Agent Richardson said the FBI was not optimistic about the situation, fearing for Ethan's life.

'We thought Ethan was going to die,' he told ABC News. 'Our negotiators, our behavioral science folks, behavioral analysis folks told us the best you can hope for is a murder-suicide.'

Authorities previously said Dykes wanted to make a public statement about his complaints against the government, but never revealed specific topics. The recording indicated he believed he could spark anarchy.

'You know goddamn well what I'd say when I go public,' Dykes said. 'It's going to create chaos. It's going to create riots. ... People are going be standing up to this [expletive] dictatorial, incompetent, self-righteous, bunch of sorry bastards in government.'

FBI behavioral scientist Molly Amman, who helped with the hostage situation, said: 'I was immediately concerned. [Dykes] was angry but intelligent and controlled.'

She added: 'Charles Poland was a friend of his. Maybe his only friend. He very coldly made a promise ... to Mr. Poland: "You will do this or I will kill you". And he killed him.'

Neighbors had said Dykes was known as 'Mean Man' because of his anti-government rants, and for carrying a rifle and a shovel.

His motive is still unclear, although Dykes was due in court the day after the school bus confrontation on a charge of firing a weapon at neighbors.

Agent Sean Van Slyke told ABC News that in a final twist to the hostage situation, Dykes had planned 'to have a female reporter down there with him, and that she would hold his hand while, in fact, he got his final message out to the world and then committed suicide in her presence'.

Fortunately, agents, most of whom have children of their own, were able to storm the bunker, killing Dykes and rescuing Ethan who suffered no physical injury during his time in captivity.

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