"Ala. gunman wages standoff after shooting, kidnapping" by Phillip Rawls | Associated Press, January 31, 2013
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — A gunman holed up in a bunker with a 5-year-old hostage kept police at bay Wednesday in an all-night, all-day standoff that began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away, authorities said.
SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman’s rural property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartner’s safe release.
The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure 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 shotgun.
I'm not for killing dogs, but what is wrong with protecting your property?
He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.
The standoff along a red dirt road began Tuesday afternoon....
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"Negotiators talking to Ala. captor through pipe" by Philip Rawls | Associated Press, February 01, 2013
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — Speaking into a 4-inch-wide ventilation pipe, hostage negotiators tried Thursday to talk a man into releasing a kindergartner 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 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.’’
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 in 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.’’
*************
No motive has been discussed by investigators, but the police chief said the FBI had evidence suggesting it could be considered a hate crime.
He hates school bus drivers?
Btw, what crime is truly committed out of love?
Federal authorities have not released any details about the standoff or the investigation. The mayor said he has not seen anything tying together Dykes’ antigovernment 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 about a speed bump. Neighbor Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son, and her baby grandson about 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.’’
Then it wasn't about hate, was it?
Neighbors described a number of other run-ins with Dykes in the time since he moved to this small town near the Georgia and Florida borders.
A neighbor directly across the street, Brock Parrish, said Dykes often wore overalls and glasses and his posture was hunched-over. He said Dykes usually drove a run-down ‘‘creeper’’ van with some of the windows covered in aluminum foil.
Oh, he's a tin foil hat type, 'eh?
Parrish saw him often digging in his yard, as if he was preparing a spot to lay down a driveway or a building foundation. He lived in a small camping trailer on the site. He patrolled his lawn at night, walking from corner to corner with a flashlight and an assault rifle.
I know the inexactitude is not a big deal, but was it a shotgun or an assault rifle?
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"Alabama standoff goes into a 4th day; Young hostage getting medicine" by Melissa Nelson-Gabriel and Jay Reeves | Associated Press, February 02, 2013
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — The standoff between police and a gunman accused of holding a kindergartner hostage in an underground bunker dragged into a fourth day on Friday, as authorities sought to continue delicate conversations with the man through a pipe and worked to safely end the tense situation.
Police said Jimmy Lee Dykes shot a school bus driver to death, grabbed a 5-year-old boy off the bus, and slipped into an underground bunker on his property in rural Alabama, where the pair has been since Tuesday. There were signs the standoff could go on: The shelter has electricity, food, television, and police have delivered the boy’s medication through a 4-inch-wide ventilation pipe leading to the bunker.
Hostage negotiators have used the pipe to talk to the gunman, but investigators have been tightlipped about their conversations.
Former FBI hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt said authorities at the scene should not rush to resolve the standoff as long as they are confident that the boy is unharmed. He cautioned against any drastic measures, such as cutting the electricity or putting sleep gas inside the bunker because it could agitate Dykes.
As seen on TV.
The negotiator should try to ease Dykes’s anxieties over what will happen when the standoff ends, and refer to both the boy and Dykes by their first names to humanize them, he said.
‘‘I want to give him a reason to come out,’’ Van Zandt said, ‘‘and my reason is, ‘You didn’t mean that to happen. It was unintentional. It could have happened to anyone. It was an accident. People have accidents, Jimmy Lee. It’s not that big a thing. You and I can work that out.’ ’’
I don't think that is going to play to well in a courtroom.
The shelter was about 4 feet underground, with about 6-by-8 feet of floor space and the PVC pipe that negotiators were speaking through, said James Arrington, police chief of the neighboring town of Pinckard.
‘‘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 agents and has 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.’’
Representative Steve Clouse, a Republican 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 as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Meaning the kid is loaded up on pharmaceuticals.
Police have been delivering medication to him through the pipe, he added.
Maybe if you stopped sending down the meds the kid's conditions might drive the old guy out.
The normally quiet red clay road leading to the bunker teemed Friday with more than a dozen police cars and trucks, a fire truck, a helicopter, officers from multiple agencies, and news media near Midland City, population 2,300.
Police vehicles came and went steadily for hours from the command post at a church.
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 firearm.
The chief confirmed that Dykes held antigovernment 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.’’
No motive has been discussed by investigators, but the police chief said the FBI had evidence suggesting it could be considered a hate crime.
Oh, put it in your pipe and smoke it, FBI.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Alabama town mourns bus driver; Police standoff with boy’s captor enters fifth day" by Tamara Lush | Associated Press, February 03, 2013
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — Newton is about 3 miles away from Midland City. It is a hamlet with fewer than 2,000 residents. It sits amid cotton farms and rolling hills sprinkled with red earth; most of the residents commute to Dothan or to a nearby Army post.
As Newton grieves, residents are praying for the safe return of the boy being held hostage — and wondering about the man behind the abduction.
‘‘We’d all like to get to him and say, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ ” said Gerald Harden, owner of a gun shop in Newton....
A Vietnam-era veteran....
Police were were saying little....
The standoff continued....
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"Arrest made after 2 killed at Alabama club
HOOVER — A suspect was arrested Saturday in the shooting deaths of two people overnight at a nightclub near Birmingham. Police Captain James Coker said US marshals made an arrest at 7 a.m., seven hours after the shooting inside Martini’s Lounge in Hoover. The suspect was not immediately identified. The victims were Monterio Alonzo Peebles-Kellogg, 19, and Lakenya Chaniese Moton, 20, both of Birmingham. They were declared dead at the scene. A third person was treated for gunshot injuries not believed to be life-threatening (AP)."
"Police fatally shoot gunman at hospital
BIRMINGHAM — A man opened fire in a hospital Saturday morning, wounding an officer and two employees before he was fatally shot by police. Birmingham police said the officer and employees had injuries that were not considered life-threatening. The police responded to a report that a man carrying a gun was walking through St. Vincent’s Hospital. When the gunman was confronted by officers, he started shooting. That was when the second officer shot and killed the man, officials said."
Also see: Mom says teen did not steal aircraft
Judge stops Ala. policy of segregating HIV inmates
Slamming Down a Post About Alabama
Also see: Mom says teen did not steal aircraft
Judge stops Ala. policy of segregating HIV inmates
Slamming Down a Post About Alabama
