During a news conference with Alabama school officials, Donny Bynum, superintendent of Dale County Schools, says, "We have a long way to go. We have a healing process that we as a community must go through.'
By Matthew DeLuca and Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News
As residents of Midland City, Ala., Tuesday celebrated the freeing of a 5-year-old Alabama boy held hostage for nearly a week, details emerged about the daring operation that freed him.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday that federal agents practiced their intricate rescue plans not far from where the kidnapper, 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, held the little boy.
Before storming the underground shelter where Dykes held the boy on Monday, the agents built a mock bunker nearby where they prepared over the prior six days, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation.
Police had been in regular contact with Dykes since he took the young boy, identified only as Ethan, into the homemade bunker last Tuesday. Authorities passed medicine and toys including a red Hot Wheels car to the boy, who is said to have Asperger?s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and talked to Dykes through a PVC pipe that ran from the bunker into the yard.
Dykes had been reported to have electric heaters and blankets in his bunker, as well as electricity. But hope for a peaceful end to the standoff came to an end when negotiators began to fear that Dykes might pose an immediate threat to the young boy.
?Within the past 24 hours, negotiations deteriorated and Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun,? FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Richardson said at a press conference after the standoff ended. ?At this point, FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child.?
Law enforcement officials have said they even managed to sneak a camera into the roughly 8 feet by 6 feet bunker where Dykes holed up, but have declined to say how.
?It?s a technique we may want to use again, so we?re not being specific,? an official told NBC News.
The final rush to bring Ethan to safety began suddenly on Monday afternoon.
Neighbor Byron Martin heard a boom that ?made me jump off the ground.? Local paper the Dothan Eagle reported two loud blasts after 3 p.m.?
It seems the bang was the first ? and most audible ? sign to people in the area that Ethan?s ordeal was close to an end. An FBI source confirmed to NBC News on Monday that the blast was a ?diversionary device? ? a flashbang explosive that gave them time to breach the bunker through a door at the top at 3:12 p.m. The boy emerged unharmed, according to officials, but the man who authorities say abducted him was dead at the scene.
Whether Dykes died from a lawman?s bullet, a self-inflicted gunshot wound, or from the flashbang somehow, law enforcement officials would not say on Tuesday, pending autopsy results to determine the cause of his death.
The source said that law enforcement officials were still searching Dykes? 1.5 acre property in the rural Alabama community for explosives on Tuesday afternoon. Neighbors had described Dykes in the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping as a paranoid Navy veteran who had beaten at least one neighborhood pet to death.
And why Dykes decided to storm a school bus and take a hostage in the first place remained unclear to investigators. Dykes missed a court appearance on a menacing charge on Wednesday morning, the day after the kidnapping. Officials have not commented on whether that court appearance may have motivated Dykes.
Hostage suspect was loner, missed court appearance
?There are a variety of events that may have led to this,? the law enforcement source close to the investigation told NBC on Tuesday. ?But they are very complex.?
President Obama offered his thanks to the FBI on Monday night.
?This evening, the President called FBI director Robert Mueller to compliment him for the role federal law enforcement officers played in resolving the hostage situation in Alabama today,? a White House official said in a statement. ?The President praised the exceptional coordination between state, local, and federal partners, and thanked all the law enforcement officials involved during the nearly week long ordeal for their roles in the successful rescue of the child.?
The young boy was ?laughing, joking, playing, eating,? said Agent Richardson Monday. ?He?s very brave, he?s very lucky. His success story is that he got out and he?d doing great.?
'Greatest birthday' for boy rescued from Alabama bunker by FBI
?If I could, I would do cartwheels all the way down the road,? Debra Cook, the boy?s aunt, told Good Morning America. ?I was ecstatic.?
Ethan will celebrate his sixth birthday on Wednesday. Dale County School District officials have said that they are planning a celebration of Ethan?s birthday and the life of slain bus driver Charles Albert Poland, Jr. for another date.
NBC?s Pete Williams and Isolde Raftery contributed reporting.
Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16855497-details-emerge-of-mock-bunker-in-alabama-hostages-rescue?lite
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