Alabama hostage: 5-year-old boy "happy to be home," says family member
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. 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 hideout Monday afternoon and freed the kindergartner. The 65-year-old armed captor was killed by law enforcement agents, authorities said.
How did the Ala. hostage standoff end?
"They did have a camera inside and they were able to observe his movements," says CBS This Morning senior correspondent John Miller. "As they watched him handling the weapon, he was getting more and more irrational."
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 said. " ... It's a relief for us to be able to reunited a mother with her child."
Interviewed Tuesday, the boy's great uncle, Berlin Enfinger, told ABC's Good Morning America that the child was relieved to be home after his rescue a day earlier. An FBI Hostage Rescue team launched the rescue attempt after concerns mounted that Dykes was growing more unstable and presented a growing threat to the boy's safety, a U.S. official told CBS News.
"He's happy to be home, and he looks good," Enfinger said.
CBS affiliate WKRG in Mobile, Ala., reports the boy was reunited with his family just in time: On Wednesday, he celebrates his sixth birthday.
- Alabama hostage taker Jimmy Lee Dykes died at cops' hands
- FBI: Boy, 5, safe, kidnapper dead, in raid on Ala. bunker
Almost a week after Dykes was accused of fatally shooting a school bus driver on Jan. 29 and grabbing the child from among a busload of students, authorities were undertaking an extensive investigation of the standoff site — some 100 acres in Midland City where Dykes had built his bunker.
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.
But federal authorities were tight-lipped about specifics of how they ended the standoff.
A law enforcement source did not disclose Dykes' motives but said he had issues he had wanted to air and one of them was of an anti-government nature, according to CBS senior investigative producer Pat Milton. The source did not elaborate.
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. "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."
Flash bangs used to end Ala. hostage situation
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.
The boy was reunited with his mother and taken to a hospital to be checked out. Officials have said he has Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Richardson said he saw the child at the hospital and he 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 set amid peanut farms and cotton fields some 100 miles southeast of the state capital of Montgomery.
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Often told as if to prove that marijuana is the problem when the problem in fact is his conviction for possession. This guy probably would have been a lot better balanced and behaved if he had a decent smoke all the time. Instead he is subject to official state harassment to prevent him from using a natural healing herb for his problems. Since his conviction he was probably resorting to anti-depressants which have been linked to many of the mass killings of recent times.
These people need care from the community and instead they have their medicine stolen from them and money extorted from them and experience the trauma of 'due process' as cops and judges bully and yell and their only option after that is highly addictive, counter productive pharmaceuticals. This is no way to treat people with problems. Legalize drugs and get the police out of health care and give their budget to community groups who really help people and this kind of thing will happen a lot less.
It is a miracle that the boy is safe and sound, however despite the death of the criminal, the danger is always there, because violence is increasing, and such incidents await children, which is requires more vigilance on the part of parents.
"au revoir"
award for achievement, commendation, or valor. Only automatic eye candy awards.
Hopefully, he will be able, with the help of counselors and the support of the community and family; he will not be permanently scarred.
Also, counseling should be made (free of charge) to the children who were on the bus and witnessed the murder of their bus driver and the kidnapping of this little boy for as long as they need it.
Always a good thing when these psych jobs take them selves out after a major incident, like Sandy Hook, Columbine and others. Such a travesty when we know who killed and how many they killed, than we parade them around in the legal system for decades at OUR COST.
I for one am all for returned full rights back to law enforcement to always be able to shoot first and ask questions later. What you criminals have created these days is a FARSE. Officers of the law have to be afraid nowadays that if they shoot a scumbag that deserves it they themselves could go to prison. I would give them full immunity, they can shoot first, ask questions later and NOT have to worry about being taken off the job or worse. Our safety, protection and well being has to come first and it doesn't the way you have things today. I would also make it so that Lawyers and judges and DA's could go to prison when they err and send someone to jail or prison and it is later proved that a grave err was made.
Mari1963 uses the phrase "normal folk like us". Well, ain't a one of you on my planet that is normal, not a one. ONLY ME.
;P
Bunch o' Tite Azzed people!!