What 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes wanted when he took 6-year-old Ethan into an underground bunker is what we all want sometimes…attention.
DETAILS: Hallelujah! Alabama Hostage Situation Over, But How Did Police Rescue 5-Year-Old Ethan?
According to a source with intimate knowledge of the case, Dykes wanted everybody to know that he was important, but he chose to get that point across in an unconventional way.
“He’s a guy who’s a nobody who doesn’t feel that way about himself,” a source with intimate knowledge of the case says. “Grandiosity.”
The source says that Dykes saw all the media attention surrounding events like the Sandy Hook massacre and decided that school, kids and guns were the way to get some attention.
“He figured if he wanted to get on national news, kidnapping a kid off a school bus was going to give him a platform,” the source says.
His initial plan was to take two kids hostage from the school bus in Alabama on Jan. 29. But when Dykes boarded the bus, they bolted out the back door and the bus driver, who was shot dead, confronted him. He was only able to grab Ethan.
Dykes took the child, who was 5-years-old at the time, to an underground tornado shelter. It was a 6-by-8-foot bunker that had a narrow PVC ventilation pipe that ran down into it. This was how police were able to deliver medication, snacks and toys to the young boy.
“They start negotiating, the first thing he says, ‘I want a TV reporter and camera down here and broadcast live on the news,’” the source says. “He wanted to go on TV and rail against the government and taxes.”
Investigators provided Dykes with equipment to video tape his own statement for television. According to the Daily Mail, the FBI was able to place a camera inside the bunker from this strategic move.
At the same time, the FBI managed to introduce a camera and a listening device into the shelter through what the source describes only as “covert means.” The agents in the FBI command vehicle were able to monitor Dykes in the shelter as they kept talking to him. He seemed to be treating the boy reasonably well, and remained generally coherent within the confines of his craziness, so the FBI decided to keep talking to on through Saturday.
“He’s caring pretty well for the kid,” the source says. “The negotiations were going pretty well. Different ways to get equipment in, get his message recorded, get on TV so he can see it.”
But as Saturday turned to Sunday, the agents noted that Dykes had stopped the periodic naps they had observed him taking. He began making less and less sense, talking in circles, giving answers that were out of context with the questions.
That’s when investigators knew they had run out of time.
To that end, they built a plywood mock-up of the shelter, just as the SEALs had built a mock-up of Osama bin Laden’s lair. Only, this would be more delicate because there was a hostage. Agents role-played Dykes and the boy as the teams rehearsed exactly what they would do in every conceivable scenario.
Back at the scene, the agents had been delivering supplies and other items to Dykes that were too big to fit down the pipe. The agents would leave the item by the hatch and Dykes would reach up and pull it down…
When the hatch rose, the HRT team was ready to toss in two stun grenades and rush the hatch before it closed. Dykes may have fired one shot before the agents killed him. The bomb squad came in behind them to disarm the devices.
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Ethan is safe and sound thanks to the help of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). He celebrates his sixth birthday today. While the situation is unfortunate, we’re thankful for the patience of the team and we are wishing little Ethan a very happy birthday.
SOURCE: DailyBeast
