65-Year-Old Kidnapper Dead
Jimmy Lee Dykes, the retired Alabama trucker who allegedly shot a school bus driver last week, was shot and killed by tactical law enforcement officers. His 5-year-old boy hostage, Ethan, has been rescued. The boy is safe.
The boy and his captor have been in an underground bunker for seven days. Jimmy Lee Dykes had threatened to kill all the children on the bus before taking the boy, according to one of the students on the bus.
Sunday — Standoff continued, Town Grieved Bus Driver …
As the standoff with a man accused of holding a 5-year-old boy hostage continues, a nearby community prepares to bury the beloved bus driver who was shot to death when the episode started to unfold days ago.
Inside the bunker there was a small room with food, electricity and a television. Dale County Sheriff’s police communicated with Jim Lee Dykes through a ventilation pipe.
Last Monday, survivalist, Jimmy Lee Dykes, tricked Alabama school bus driver, Albert Poland Jr, 66, into stopping by — ‘promising a gift of home-grown broccoli’ before he shot him.
More facts …
The bunker door is believed to be booby trapped. The FBI x-rayed the site and found the bunker to be wired with explosives.
Dykes was known to have been easily angered, once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for trespassing on his property, and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm.
Hostage negotiators communicated with Dykes via a ‘throw phone’ which is a device that uses a sensitive speaker/microphone system that allows the barricaded subject to communicate at any time.