CBS NEWS
As FBI and police negotiators sought for days to coax an Alabama man
into freeing a kindergartner held hostage in an underground bunker, the
captor was planning for violence, authorities say.
He
rigged the bunker with explosives, tried to reinforce it against any
raid, and when SWAT agents stormed the shelter Monday to rescue the boy,
Jimmy Lee Dykes engaged in a firefight that left the captor dead, the
FBI and officials said.
After the nearly weeklong hostage
ordeal, relatives say the boy who turned 6 on Wednesday appears to be
doing well and is back at home. He was seized off a crowded school bus
Jan. 29 after authorities say the 65-year-old gunman shot the driver
dead and took the child to the bunker, where he was held until Monday's
rescue.
On "CBS This Morning" Wednesday, CBS News senior correspondent John
Miller reported that the driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., was what
authorities described as the closest thing Dykes had to a friend.
The slain bus driver has been hailed as a hero for trying to protect all of the nearly two dozen youngsters on his bus.
Security video showed the two arguing in the bus before Dykes shot Poland and took the boy, Miller reports.
While
the FBI has largely been tight-lipped about how it monitored Dykes'
behavior and mood in the days leading up to the rescue, the latest
revelations suggest authorities were dealing with an abductor fully
prepared for more violence even as he allowed police to send food,
medicine and toys into the bunker for the boy.
An FBI
statement late Tuesday said Dykes had planted an explosive device in a
ventilation pipe he'd told negotiators to use to communicate with him on
his property in the rural Alabama community of Midland City. The
suspect also placed another explosive device inside the bunker, the FBI
added.
Dykes appears to have "reinforced the bunker
against any attempted entry by law enforcement," FBI special agent Jason
Pack said in the statement providing significant, new details about how
it all ended.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports the standoff ended
when Dykes climbed an 8-foot ladder to get supplies. Sources say that,
as he reached up to get a delivery, he was off-balance and vulnerable.
The boy was away from the ladder and relatively protected.
When
Dykes opened the door, rescue team members dropped two stun-grenades,
Strassmann reports. Their loud noises and flashes disoriented him.
Within seconds, four team members entered the bunker.
Dykes then "engaged in a firefight with the SWAT agents," Pack added.
Authorities
believe Dykes fired first but missed, Strassmann reports. Agents
returned fire multiple times, killing Dykes and rescuing the boy.
According to the FBI, bomb technicians scouring the Dykes property in southeastern Alabama found the two explosive devices.
The devices were "disrupted," Pack said, though he did not say whether that meant they were detonated or disarmed.
Officers
will continue Wednesday to sweep the 100-acre property and, when they
finish, investigators can more thoroughly investigate, Pack said.
For
days, officers communicated with Dykes through a plastic pipe that rose
up from the bunker, which was similar to a tornado shelter and
apparently had running water, heat and cable television.
On
Monday, authorities said, Dykes had a gun and appeared increasingly
agitated, though it's unclear exactly how his behavior changed.
Negotiations - the details of which have not been made public - were
deteriorating. The Midland City official said law enforcement agents had
been observing Dykes with some sort of camera, which is how they saw
that he had a gun.
Pack declined to get into specifics, but confirmed that high-tech surveillance equipment was used during the police standoff.
Dale
County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said Tuesday that he had not been able
to confirm exactly how Dykes died because the man's body had remained in
the bunker. An autopsy was to be conducted in Montgomery once the body
was removed.
The boy, who has Asperger's syndrome and
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was said to be acting like a
normal kid after his rescue. And officials said there was no indication
that Dykes had harmed the boy.
The boy was running
around, playing with a toy dinosaur and other action figures, eating a
turkey sandwich and watching "SpongeBob SquarePants," relatives and Dale
County Sheriff Wally Olson said.
"We know he's OK
physically, but we don't know how he is mentally," Betty Jean
Ransbottom, the boy's grandmother, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
She added that she feared the ordeal would stay with the child the rest
of his life.
The family was relieved and grateful for
all the support in a community where ribbons, fliers and vigils all
symbolized the prayers for the safe return of the boy, whom law
enforcement officials have only identified by his first name, Ethan.
The
boy's mother, in a statement released by authorities, expressed her
thanks for all the hard work of so many officers to bring her son home.
The woman declined to be identified, the statement said. During his
captivity, his only comforts were a Hot Wheels car and other treats
passed to him by officers.
"For the first time in almost a
week, I woke up this morning to the most beautiful sight ... my sweet
boy," she said. "I can't describe how incredible it is to hold him
again."
In Midland City, a town of about 2,400 nestled
among peanut and cotton fields, residents were relieved that the boy was
safely rescued from Dykes. Neighbors had described Dykes as an unstable
menace who beat a dog to death and threatened to shoot trespassers
while patrolling his property armed.
Children and
teachers were trying to get back to normal, though some children who
were on the bus where Dykes killed the driver on Jan. 29 have not yet
returned to school, said Donny Bynum, superintendent of Midland City
schools. Counselors and clergy are at the school to help any distraught
students.
Officials hope to eventually throw a party to
celebrate the boy's sixth birthday and to honor the memory of Poland Jr.
No date has been set, Bynum said.