MIDLAND CITY,
Ala. (AP) -- For six anguished days, people in this small Alabama
town asked just one question about the 5-year-old boy being held hostage
in an underground bunker by a menacing, unpredictable neighbor: "Is he
free yet?"
After FBI agents determined that
talks with an increasingly agitated Jimmy Lee Dykes were breaking down,
they stormed the closet-sized shelter and freed the kindergartner. The
65-year-old hostage-taker was killed by law enforcement officials, an
official told the AP.
Authorities say the boy,
who appeared to be facing imminent danger when they went in, is doing
well in the aftermath of his ordeal. But they have yet to answer
questions as to how they monitored Dykes and exactly what prompted the
rescue Monday afternoon.
And almost a week
after Dykes was accused of fatally shooting a school bus driver on Jan.
29 and grabbing the child at random from a busload of students, the man
described as threatening and volatile by his neighbors lay dead on his
property in Midland City.
An official in
Midland City, citing information from law enforcement, said police had
shot Dykes. The official requested anonymity because the official wasn't
authorized to speak publicly about the investigation into the case that
had captured national attention.
As they had
been throughout the standoff, authorities were tight-lipped about
details about the resolution of the standoff. Neighbors said they heard a
bang and gunshots, but the FBI wouldn't confirm that. Authorities also
kept under wraps exactly how they were able to monitor Dykes and the boy
in such a confined space.
"We have a big
crime scene behind us to process," said Special Agent Steve Richardson
of the FBI's office in Mobile, Ala. "I can't talk about sources,
techniques or methods that we used. But I can tell you the success story
is (the boy) is safe."
Dale County Sheriff
Wally Olson said late Monday that Dykes was armed when officers entered
the bunker to rescue the child. He said the boy was threatened but
declined to elaborate.
"That's why we went inside - to save the child," he added.
Daryle
Hendry, who lives about a quarter-mile from the bunker, said he heard a
boom Monday afternoon, followed by what sounded like a gunshot. Dykes
had been seen with a gun, and officers concluded the boy was in imminent
danger, Richardson told reporters.
It was not immediately clear how authorities determined the man had a gun.
After
the rescue, authorities, said, the boy was reunited with his mother and
appeared to be OK. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Dothan to be
checked. Officials have said he has Asperger's syndrome and attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Richardson
said he had been to the hospital to see the boy and the child was
laughing, joking, eating and "doing the things you'd expect a normal 5-
or 6-year-old to do."
The rescue capped a
hostage drama that disrupted the lives of many in a tranquil town of
2,400 people, nestled amid peanut farms and cotton fields some 100 miles
southeast of the state capital of Montgomery. It is a small,
close-knit community that has long relied on a strong Christian faith, a
policy of "love thy neighbor" and the power of group prayer.
The
child's plight prompted nightly candlelight vigils. Fliers appealing
for a safe end to the crisis were tucked into the chain-link fence where
the kindergartner was enrolled. Ribbons had been strung up.
While
a town anxiously waited for days, authorities had been speaking with
Dykes though a plastic pipe that went into the bunker, built like the
tornado shelters common to this area of the South. It was about 4 feet
underground, with about 50 square feet of floor space.
Authorities
also sent food, medicine and other items into the bunker, which
apparently had running water, heat and cable television but no toilet.
The
standoff unfolded just a few hundred yards from U.S. 231, a busy
four-lane highway where both sides of the road were lined with law
enforcement vehicles from local, state and federal authorities.
When
it was over, one acquaintance, Roger Arnold, commented: "He always said
he'd never be taken alive. I knew he'd never come out of there."
FBI
bomb technicians later began scouring the property for any explosive
devices and planned an even more exhaustive look once the site was
deemed safe, FBI spokesman Jason Pack said.
Asked
about officials who said Dykes had been killed by law enforcement
officers, Pack responded in an email early Tuesday: "The facts
surrounding the incident will be established by a shooting review team
from Washington, D.C., in the coming days."
At
the request of law enforcement authorities, Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta had approved the provision of certain equipment that could be
employed to assist in the hostage situation, according to a U.S.
official who requested anonymity to discuss a pending law enforcement
matter. It is not clear whether the equipment was actually used.
Neighbors
described Dykes as a nuisance 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.
Government
records and interviews with neighbors indicate that Dykes joined the
Navy in Midland City and served 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.
He had some scrapes with the law
in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon.
The misdemeanor was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana
possession in 2000.
He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbors.
Ronda
Wilbur, a neighbor of Dykes who said the man beat her dog to death last
year with a pipe, said she was relieved to be done with the stress of
knowing Dykes was patrolling his yard and willing to shoot at anyone or
anything he suspected of trespassing.
"The nightmare is over. It's been a long couple of years of having constant stress," she said.
On
Sunday, more than 500 people attended a memorial service for bus driver
Charles Albert Poland Jr., who was hailed as a hero for protecting
nearly two dozen other children on the bus before he was gunned down and
the boy grabbed.
"This man was a true hero
who was willing to give up his life so others might live," Gov. Robert
Bentley said in a news release after learning of the boy's rescue.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
