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Deadly Alabama school bus shooting leads to standoff with suspect, 6-year-old

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Deadly Alabama school bus shooting leads to standoff with suspect, 6-year-old - CBS News
MIDLAND CITY, ALA. Police SWAT teams and hostage negotiators were locked in a standoff Wednesday with a gunman authorities say intercepted a school bus, killed the driver, snatched a 6-year-old boy and retreated into a bunker at his home with the kindergartener.

The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known 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.

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 dragged on through the night and into the afternoon Wednesday after the gunman boarded a stopped school bus filled with children in the small town of Midland City, population 2,300, on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Sheriff Wally Olsen said the man shot the bus driver when he refused to hand over a 6-year-old child. The gunman then took the kindergartener away.

Dykes was believed to be holed up with the boy in an underground bunker of the sort used to take shelter from a tornado.

CBS affiliate WTVY-TV in the nearby town of Dothan reports that contact has been made with the unidentified child and that the hostage is safe, but still being held captive. Police were communicating through a PVC pipe in the bunker.
 
This is the most disturbing story. It takes an extremely low and pathetic person to kidnap a 6 year old. I hope the kid makes it out alright.
 
I live in Central Alabama, and of course this is all of the news.

Apparently the man is Jimmy Lee Dykes. He is a deranged Vietnam Veteran and a Doomsday Prepper. The bunker he is in is likely able to take any sort of weapon...I wouldn't doubt a ventilation system with underground air filtration systems. The thought of gassing it is out of the question.

These so-called negotiators are not using smart tactics. Dykes has an extreme distrust of Police and the government. He is very Anti-Government from all accounts. He does NOT recognize the authority.

He probably has enough supplies to last a long time in that bunker....this situation is very dire to say the least.

Information can be found here.

www.wsfa.com
 
What "smart" tactics do you advise the negotiators should use?
 
What "smart" tactics do you advise the negotiators should use?

Something other than "COME OUT AND TALK! WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"

That won't work...these negotiators sound local...the FBI needs to send a team there to negotiate
 
I live in Central Alabama, and of course this is all of the news.

Apparently the man is Jimmy Lee Dykes. He is a deranged Vietnam Veteran and a Doomsday Prepper. The bunker he is in is likely able to take any sort of weapon...I wouldn't doubt a ventilation system with underground air filtration systems. The thought of gassing it is out of the question.
Says they are communicating via a PVC pipe. Not sure how well that would work if it was using an activated carbon filter. Although maybe that is an exhaust pipe and he has a positive pressure in there.

In any case though it would be very risky to use gas. Anything that knocked him out fast enough not to hurt the kid would be very dangerous for a six year-old to breath. :(

When Putin had that theater gassed a number of years back it killed a number of the adult hostages along with knocking out the hostage takers.
 
A bus driver trained to use a firearm just like a security guard might have made a difference.
 
When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

When you have a liberal mind, everyone "looks" stupid. Fortunately that's not the case, and we don't let you tell us what to do.
 
When the only answer to a hammer problem is more hammers, then tunnel vision is the least of your worries.

He's talking about getting into an eight by six foot bunker and shooting it out with an armed paranoid Vietnam vet holding a hostage.
 
When the only answer to a hammer problem is more hammers, then tunnel vision is the least of your worries.

He's talking about getting into an eight by six foot bunker and shooting it out with an armed paranoid Vietnam vet holding a hostage.

I'll bet you never hammered a nail.
 
He was a menace before too. Could have been treated by now speaking in hindsight. I bet the bunker should have resemblance with a real life experience in Vietnam.
 
When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Well if he is talking into a tube...you don't need a 1 shoot out. Just one shot. But idk if he is putting his mouth at the tube or not.

Idk though. This is tough. There really doesn't seem to be an answer to this.
 
This is awful, couldn't imagine a more difficult hostage situation.

A man who appears to have no empathy on his own turf. Can't see the kid making it out alive.
 
When the only answer to a hammer problem is more hammers, then tunnel vision is the least of your worries.

He's talking about getting into an eight by six foot bunker and shooting it out with an armed paranoid Vietnam vet holding a hostage.

Fighting it out with a senior citizen, is the reality.

And, let's don't get too hyped up about him being a Vietnam Vet. A minority of Vietnam vets served in infantry units and an even smaller minority saw any real combat.
 
Fighting it out with a senior citizen, is the reality.

And, let's don't get too hyped up about him being a Vietnam Vet. A minority of Vietnam vets served in infantry units and an even smaller minority saw any real combat.

Why, are YOU questioning his partriotism? :lol:
 
How are you going to shoot it out with him? It won't work at all in any sort of way. The man was not only a Vietnam Vet, but a DOOMSDAY PREPPER. Good luck getting through that bunker without the guy going nuts and possibly killing the kid.

The bus driver did not have enough time to react and shoot the man. The guy got on the bus and immediately had him. The bus driver was a 67 year old man himself, and I doubt his reaction times were what they used to be.

Gas and starvation will not work. I believe they need to use an authority the man would recognize. What that is I couldn't tell ya, but its obvious that he has no plans on listening to local authorities.
 
How are you going to shoot it out with him? It won't work at all in any sort of way. The man was not only a Vietnam Vet, but a DOOMSDAY PREPPER. Good luck getting through that bunker without the guy going nuts and possibly killing the kid.

The bus driver did not have enough time to react and shoot the man. The guy got on the bus and immediately had him. The bus driver was a 67 year old man himself, and I doubt his reaction times were what they used to be.

Gas and starvation will not work. I believe they need to use an authority the man would recognize. What that is I couldn't tell ya, but its obvious that he has no plans on listening to local authorities.

I agree. He will probably off the kid and himself.

This seems to be a "Ruby Ridge" of sorts.

I suppose pumping the bunker with anesthetics would work - it would be risky because it could potentially kill both.
 
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