Bus driver ‘hero’ in ongoing Alabama hostage crisis

Law enforcement officials at the scene of the s shooting and hostage-taking in Midland City, Alabama.

DPA/Washington

The Alabama hostage crisis entered its fourth day yesterday as a retired soldier held a five-year-old boy hostage in a homemade underground bunker in the southern US state.

Officials were close-lipped about negotiations being carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police.

“They’re taking time and trying to wear him out,” police chief James Arrington of Pinckard, Alabama, who is familiar with details of the case, was quoted by CNN as saying.

The little boy, identified by ABC news only as “Ethan”, was seized on Tuesday as he rode home on a school bus.

The accused kidnapper, Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, boarded the bus when it stopped to let children out, according to CNN.

Dykes apparently knew the driver, Charles Poland Jr, who had let Dykes on the bus on an earlier day.

But on Tuesday, Dykes had a gun and insisted he be given a 6-to-8-year-old boy. Poland blocked his access while at least 21 children escaped out the back of the emergency door, CNN reported.

Then he was allegedly killed by Dykes.

It is not known if Dykes knew Ethan.

“That’s an innocent kid. He’s crying for his parents and grandparents and does not know what is going on,” Midland City mayor Virgil Skipper told ABC broadcaster. “Let this kid go.”

Dykes reportedly dug out the 2.5m-by-2m bunker on his own property and has previously stayed in it for up to eight days.

He was said to have provisions for several weeks stored in it.

The child has been provided with medicine through a plastic pipe, through which the police had contact with the kidnapper.

The boy suffers from Asperger syndrome and attention deficit disorder, news reports said.

The child has also asked for and been given crayons and paper, CNN reported.

Police have said they have no reason to believe he had been injured.

Dykes, a Vietnam War veteran and former truck driver, was to have been in court on Wednesday on charges of pointing his weapon at neighbours during a property dispute.

Neighbours have described Dykes as “anti-government”. Tim Byrd, chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff’s Office, reportedly told the civil rights group, Southern Poverty Law Centre, that Dykes was a “survivalist type” with “anti-America” views.

State Senator Harrie Anne Smith told ABC broadcaster that Ethan’s mother was “extremely grateful for all the prayers” coming from the community of 2,300 people and the world beyond.