URGENT: Officers stormed bunker when child in danger

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A sign encouraging prayer for a 5-year-old boy being held hostage, hangs on a fence surrounding Midland City Elementary school Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2013, in Midland City, Ala. Authorities say Jim Lee Dykes, 65, a decorated Vietnam-era veteran known as Jimmy to neighbors, gunned down a school bus driver and then abducted a 5-year-old boy from the bus, taking him to an underground bunker on his rural property. The driver, 66-year-old Charles Albert Poland Jr., who was shot trying to protect children on his bus, was buried Sunday. (AP Photo/AL.com, Joe Songer)

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February 4, 2013

URGENT: Officers stormed bunker when child in danger

By TAMARA LUSH and KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press Mon Feb 04, 2013, 04:48 PM CST

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — Officials say they stormed a bunker in Alabama to rescue a 5-year-old child being held hostage there after his abductor was seen with a gun.

Steve Richardson with the FBI’s office in Mobile said at a news conference Monday afternoon that negotiations deteriorated and that 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes had been seen with a gun.

At that, officers believed the child was in imminent danger. Officers entered the bunker just after 3 p.m. CST.

It was not immediately clear how Dykes died.

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