Media attention across the globe remains focused on a horrific situation in the small town of Midland City, Alabama, after a gunman shot dead a school bus driver and took a five year old autistic boy hostage.
Police teams have descended on the rural Alabama property in which the gunman is thought to be hiding in an underground bunker. Authorities are currently continuing with attempts to reason with the gunman and free his hostage.
According to initial reports from authorities, the suspected shooter boarded the school bus as it was dropping children off at their homes in Midland City. The gunman ordered that the bus driver allow the five year old boy off the bus with him. When the driver refused, the gunman shot him dead and took the child captive before escaping from the scene, said Wally Olsen, the Sheriff of Dale County. The bus driver has since been identified as Charles Albert Poland, Jr.
There are approximately 50 emergency vehicles and hundreds of law enforcement officers at the scene of the underground bunker, where negotiations are continuing with the captor. The media has been kept away from the scene, and neighboring residents have been evacuated from the area for safety regions, said a spokesperson for the police department of the adjacent town of Dothan, Rachel David. David also stated that authorities have confirmed that the child is alive and being held captive in the bunker.
There have been few updates on the situation, with Sheriff Olsen updating the press twice on Thursday to say that negotiations, which are taking place through a PVC pipe connected to the bunker, were ongoing.
The suspect, 65 year old Jimmy Lee Dykes , has been described by neighbors as a strange individual who used to stare at people in the neighborhood. Neighbor Kelly Miller said she heard multiple gunshots on the morning of the incident, and screaming, and immediately suspected that Dykes must be involved.
Concerned citizens of the Midland City community have attended candle light vigils at churches across the town on Wednesday night, praying for the safe release of the boy.
The identity of the boy has not been released to the media, however he is a five year old child who suffers from autism. Authorities have been able to provide medication, crayons and a coloring book to the child in the bunker.
There is no obvious connection between the suspect and the child, who appears to have been picked at random by Dykes.