FBI: Ala. captor rigged bunker, waged ‘firefight’
By JAY REEVES and KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press February 9, 2013 2:16PM
This undated photo released by the FBI on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, shows the pipe FBI agents and Dale County negotiators used to communicate with Jimmy Lee Dykes while he held a 5-year-old boy hostage in a bunker on his Midland City, Ala. property for a week. The pipe was also used to send food, medicine, and other items into the bunker. The boy was rescued and his captor was killed when federal agents raided the bunker on Monday. (AP Photo/FBI)
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Updated: February 9, 2013 2:16PM
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — As FBI and police negotiators spent days seeking to coax an Alabama man into freeing a 5-year-old boy held hostage in an underground bunker, the captor was making plans of his own.
FBI special agent Jason Pack said in an email that bomb technicians found two explosive devices Tuesday on the man’s property. He said one was inside the bunker and the other in the plastic pipe Dykes had told officers to use to talk with him.
Pack said Dykes also “reinforced the bunker against any attempted entry by law enforcement.” And when SWAT agents stormed the bunker Monday to rescue the boy, the FBI says Dykes engaged in a “firefight” before he was killed.
As the FBI released new details, the boy was reported doing well at home.
