Boy's abductor shot in 'firefight': FBI

Date: February 06 2013

Jay Reeves and Kate Brumback

The man who held a five-year-old boy captive for nearly a week engaged in a firefight with elite police agents storming his underground bunker before he was killed during the rescue operation, the FBI says.

And bomb technicians scouring the property found two explosive devices, one in the bunker, the other in a plastic pipe negotiators used to communicate with the man.

Officers killed 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes on Monday, said a law enforcement official in Midland City, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The bunker raid came six days after Dykes boarded a school bus, fatally shot the driver and abducted the boy, who by all accounts was unharmed.

Dykes "reinforced the bunker against any attempted entry by law enforcement", FBI Special Agent Jason Pack said in an email on Tuesday night.

The devices found were "disrupted", Pack said, though he did not say whether that meant they were detonated or disarmed. Officers will continue into Wednesday to sweep the 40-hectare property and when they finish, investigators can more thoroughly investigate, Pack said.

For days, officers passed food, medicine, toys and other items into the bunker, which was similar to a tornado shelter and apparently had running water, heat and cable television.

On Monday, authorities said Dykes had a gun and appeared increasingly agitated, though it's unclear exactly how his behaviour changed. Negotiations - the details of which have not been made public - were deteriorating.

Agents stormed the bunker, whisking the boy to safety and leaving Dykes dead. The official who confirmed that officers killed Dykes requested anonymity.

Neighbours said they heard what sounded like explosions and gunshots, though the FBI and local authorities would not confirm if shots were fired or explosives detonated.

By all accounts, despite his ordeal, the five-year-old appeared to be acting like a normal kid, people around him say. He was running around, playing with a toy dinosaur and other action figures, eating a turkey sandwich and watching SpongeBob SquarePants, relatives and Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said.

"We know he's OK physically, but we don't know how he is mentally," Betty Jean Ransbottom, the boy's grandmother, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

She added that she feared the ordeal would stay with the child, who turns six on Wednesday, the rest of his life.

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