A survivalist and his 5-year-old captive remained in an underground bunker in southern Alabama Sunday ? as negotiators work around the clock. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News
The five-year-old boy being held hostage in an underground bunker in Alabama by a suspected killer asked for Cheez-Its and a red Hot Wheels car, according to authorities.
The child has been in the 8-foot by 6-foot bunker for nearly a week with 65-year-old Vietnam veteran Jim Lee Dykes, who neighbors said once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe and threatened to shoot children for going on his property.
Police say Dykes boarded a school bus on Tuesday in Midland, fatally shot school bus driver Charles Poland Jr. and then took the boy into the bunker.
Authorities have been talking with Dykes through a ventilation pipe and have said the boy did not appear to have been physically harmed. The Associated Press reported:
The FBI said in a statement Sunday that authorities continue to have an open line of communication with Dykes. The little boy requested Cheez-Its and a red Hot Wheels car, both of which were delivered to the bunker, a separate statement said. Authorities had said they also were delivering medicine and other comfort items, and that Dykes was making the child as comfortable as possible.
Tributes were paid to Poland, 66, known as Chuck, as he was laid to rest Sunday.
Dale County Schools Superintendent Donny Dynum said if more people were more ?Chuck-like? the world would be a better place, the Dothan Eagle newspaper reported.
Dynum read a letter from someone who rode on Poland?s school bus, the Eagle reported. ?Since you were the nicest person I met, I?ll be the same way,? the letter said.
Related:
Son says bus driver in Alabama hostage crisis gave life for 'his children'
Sheriff to Alabama hostage-taker: 'I want to thank him for taking care of our child'
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