FBI agents in Midland City, Alabama stormed in an underground bunker, and freed 5-year-old, Ethan on Monday afternoon. The standoff ended with Ethan's kidnapper identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, dead.
Meanwhile Ethan, after being kidnapped for over a week, was reportedly "doing fine," according to negotiators and agents. The Associated Press reported that throughout the course of the week-long hostage crisis, negotiations with the gunman, Dykes, had deteriorated to such a level that agents had little choice but to go in, as they feared Ethan was in "imminent danger."
Residents in the area described hearing an explosion and gunshots, the Los Angeles Times reported. Since being released, Ethan has been treated at a nearby hospital, authorities said.
"I've been to the hospital," the FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson old reporters on Monday night. "I visited with Ethan. He is doing fine. He's laughing, joking, playing, eating, the things you would expect a normal 5-to- 6-year-old young man to do. He's very brave, he's very lucky, and the success story is that he's out safe and doing great."
"The subject is deceased," Richardson said of Dykes.
He declined to provide additional details during a brief news conference on Monday afternoon.
CBS News reported that FBI agents lowered a camera into the bunker so they were able to closely monitor Dykes throughout the week-long siege, quoting unidentified federal sources.
Last week, Dykes had reportedly killed school bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr. before abducting Ethan. Officials said he was a Navy veteran. estranged from his family and reportedly railed against the government. His self-made bunker was equipped with electricity and a TV. Police described it as 6 feet by 8 feet and about 4 feet deep, with a trap door on top.
Dykes apparently did not know Ethan and authorities said he abducted the child at random after killing Poland Jr. The funeral services for Poland Jr. were held this past weekend.
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