Negotiators talking to Alabama captor through pipe

Law officers work at the hostage scene in Midland City, Ala., on Thursday. A gunman holed up in a bunker with a young hostage has kept law officers at bay since the standoff began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away, authorities said. Photo by The Associated Press.

By The Associated Press

Thursday, January 31, 2013

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) — Speaking into a 4-inch-wide ventilation pipe, hostage negotiators tried Thursday to talk a man into releasing a kindergartener and ending a standoff in an underground bunker that stretched into its third day.

The man identified by multiple neighbors and witnesses as 65-year-old retired truck driver Jimmy Lee Dykes was accused of pulling the boy from a school bus on Tuesday and killing the driver. The pair was holed up in a small room on his property that authorities compared with tornado shelters common in the area.

James Arrington, police chief of the neighboring town of Pinckard, said the shelter was about 4 feet underground, with about 6-by-8 feet of floor space and a PVC pipe that negotiators were speaking through.

There were signs that the standoff could continue for some time: A state legislator said the shelter has electricity, food and TV. The police chief said the captor has been sleeping and told negotiators that he has spent long periods in the shelter before.

“He will have to give up sooner or later because (authorities) are not leaving,” Arrington said. “It’s pretty small, but he’s been known to stay in there eight days.”

Midland City Mayor Virgil Skipper said he has been briefed by law enforcement and visited with the boy’s parents.

“He’s crying for his parents,” he said. “They are holding up good. They are praying and asking all of us to pray with them.”

Republican Rep. Steve Clouse, who represents the Midland City area, said he visited the boy’s mother Thursday and that she is “hanging on by a thread.”

“Everybody is praying with her for the boy,” he said.

Clouse said the mother told him that the boy has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism-like disorder, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Police have been delivering medication to him through the pipe, he said.

The normally quiet red clay road was teeming Thursday with more than a dozen police cars and trucks, a fire truck, a helicopter, officers from multiple agencies, media and at least one ambulance near Midland City, population 2,300.

Dykes was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who neighbors said 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.

The chief confirmed that Dykes held anti-government views, as described by multiple neighbors: “He’s against the government — starting with Obama on down.”

“He doesn’t like law enforcement or the government telling him what to do,” he said. “He’s just a loner.”

Authorities say the gunman boarded a stopped school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded two boys between 6 and 8 years old. When the driver tried to block his way, the gunman shot him several times and took a 5-year-old boy off the bus.

The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect the 21 students aboard the bus.

No motive has been discussed by investigators, but the police chief said the FBI had evidence suggesting it could be considered a hate crime. Federal authorities have not released any details about the standoff or the investigation. The mayor said he hasn’t seen anything tying together Dykes’ anti-government views and the allegations against him.

Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump. Neighbor Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage Dykes claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.

The son, James Davis Jr., believes Tuesday’s shooting was connected to the court date. “I believe he thought I was going to be in court and he was going to get more charges than the menacing, which he deserved, and he had a bunch of stuff to hide and that’s why he did it.”

More like this story

connor 3 months, 2 weeks ago

The original version of this story, before AP updated it this afternoon, had the perp patrolling his property with a Shotgun and Flashlight and I believe said he shot the buss driver with a shotgun as well. Yet this evening it has become a firearm.

Bet it becomes a so called "Assault rifle" by morning.

Just like the Newtown stories and when the facts are changed yet again back to the truth a few weeks later it will not be broadcast by the leftist media shills.

asb 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Should this obviously insane person have ANY type of firearm?

eileen10 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Why was this guy walking free after the behavior he's exhibited previousley I wonder.

Paroquet 3 months, 2 weeks ago

There's no published full story on either the dog incident (it could have been menacing him, for example, and when was the last time anyone here has seen a pipe made of lead?) or the neighbors complaint of menacing. And he would've been perfectly within his rights to be irate about the unapproved speed-bump.

What you can infer from consistent reports is that he appeared to be an antisocial loner who didn't care for any government intrusion in his life. That doesn't automatically make him a psychopath. Paranoid or sociopathic maybe (I'm not qualified to diagnose), but I don't see enough info to categorize him as a wacko prior to the incident at present. Another thing you can infer is that he doesn't appear to have been liked by his neighbors or the community in general. None of these seem to demonstrate an ironclad propensity for the bus incident prior to it happening.

Not disputing your opinion, just offering perspective upon what has been reported. The facts of the incident are fine. The rest is what amounts to hearsay.

Sequoia 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Jimmie Lee is one of those guys who "needs killing," as the saying goes. The best thing some people can do to this earth is leave it.

This story is also a reminder of the consequences of combat experience, and a reminder that words have power. Business interests use extreme anti-government rhetoric to rouse people to vote against their economic interests (and, in the case of assault weapons legislation, against their own health interest), but the fact is, many people take that politically manufactured language at face value. This man is paranonid, mentally ill, and no doubt the fake outrage of the conservative "movement" conspiracy fairy tales resonated with him.

The idea that the 2nd Amendment protects the right to own any and all weapons for the purpose of defending oneself against the government is silly, incorrect, and, in the wrong mind, dangerous. This incident should be a lesson that armed citizen rebellion will not look like the Minutemen in 1776. It will look like the senseless neighbor-on-neighbor violence of Bleeding Kansas... a history with which all good Missourians (since we were kinda the bad guys in that story) should be familiar. The NRA peddles self-serving outrage because it helps them sell guns (and they're selling a TON right now), but this political strategy has real-life consequences.

Guns kill. So do ideas. Manufacturers should be held to account.

xhepera 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Sequoia, re your comment about Minutemen v Bleeding Kansas. . .I just last evening read an interesting article in The Atlantic that talks about that very thing and uses the comparison of those events to illustrate the point. It can be found at their site with the title "Why the Citizen Militia Theory is the Worst Pro Gun Argument Ever."

Sequoia 3 months, 2 weeks ago

I read the same article. The Atlantic is a national treasure.

theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/why-the-citizen-militia-theory-is-the-worst-pro-gun-argument-ever/272734/

John 3 months, 2 weeks ago

It is interesting that you and some of those who reply to your comment so patently ignore the writings of the framers of the constitution and the 2nd amendment. You know . . . those guys like Jefferson, Adams, etc. Those who specifically wrote that the 2nd amendment really was intended to to allow citizens to own and posses firearms in order to respond to a gov't gone awry.

It is interesting because you cling to only the parts of the constitution with which you agree.

What can we learn from this kind of argument? We learn that the founding document of this country and the writers of the document were not quite as smart or far-seeing as you. Therefore, you and a few others should be allowed to rewrite it as you see fit.

TickledPink 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Be a Dear, John and look for my comment to Connor about my thoughts on a WELL REGULATED militia. Did you read the Atlantic article? Do you honestly think your AR-15 is going to stand up to gov't grade military weaponry? All you militia, survivalist types together couldn't put a dent in what the Army/Navy/Air Force/Marines can throw at you. A government gone awry will squash you like a bug. That argument is delusional at best and incredibly self serving.