Alabama Hostage Standoff: Suspect Threatened to Kill All Kids on Bus - East Idaho News
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Alabama Hostage Standoff: Suspect Threatened to Kill All Kids on Bus

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GETTY N 2113 Swat?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1359981593409iStockphoto/Thinkstock (file photo)(MIDLAND CITY, Ala.) — Jimmy Lee Dykes, the retired Alabama trucker who allegedly shot a school bus driver last week and has held a 5-year-old boy hostage in his underground bunker for seven days, had threatened to kill all the children on the bus before taking the boy, one of the students on the bus said.

“He said he was going to kill us, going to kill us all,” Tarrica Singletary, 14, told ABC News.

“The bus driver kept saying, ‘Just please get off the bus,’ and [Dykes] said, ‘Ah, all right, I’ll get off the bus,” Tarrica said.  “He just tried to back up and reverse and [Dykes] pulled out the gun and he just shot him, and he just took Ethan.”

Drones are flying over the homemade underground bunker Monday morning near Midland City, Ala., where police say Dykes is holding Ethan hostage.  Officials have not released the boy’s last name.

Despite days of negotiations, police say they have little to go on.  Dykes, 65, has made few demands, and they still have no motive for his actions, or any sense of when the standoff might end.

Negotiators have been communicating with Dykes through a ventilation pipe that leads to the bunker, and have used it to send the child comfort items, including a red Hot Wheels car, coloring books, cheese crackers, potato chips and medicine.

At a news conference this weekend, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson surprised many when he thanked Dykes.

“I want to thank him for taking care of our child, that is very important,” Olson said on Saturday.

On Sunday, the tight-knit Midland City community buried bus driver Chuck Poland, who died protecting the children from Dykes.  Hundreds came out to the funeral as they prayed for Ethan.

Cindy Steiner, who lives next door to Ethan, said his mother is worried and just wants her “loving little boy” home safe.

“Because Ethan being autistic, he has behavior problems, and she doesn’t want him to get in one of those moods where he’s uncontrollable,” Steiner told ABC News.  “She’s scared what would happen.”

Steiner said she had a message for Ethan.

“Hang tough, little man,” she said.  “We love you.  We are praying for you.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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