MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — As an Alabama standoff and hostage drama marked a sixth day yesterday, more details emerged about the suspect at the center, with neighbors and officials painting a picture of an isolated man with few friends and no close family.
Authorities say Jim Lee Dykes, 65 — a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War known as Jimmy to neighbors — gunned down a school-bus driver and abducted a 5-year-old boy from the bus, taking him to an underground bunker on his rural property about 80 miles from Montgomery. The driver, 66-year-old Charles Albert Poland Jr., was buried yesterday.
Neighbors described Dykes as a loner who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, and threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property.
The FBI said in a statement yesterday that authorities continue to have an open line of communication with Dykes.