MIDLAND CITY, Ala.  --  Negotiators have been talking through a 4-inch-wide ventilation pipe to a man holding a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground shelter in rural Alabama.

The standoff entered its second full day Thursday after authorities said a gunman pulled the boy off a school bus and killed the driver Tuesday.

The police chief of the adjacent town of Pinckard, James Arrington, says that the two are in a bunker that's about 4 feet underground and has about 6-by-8 feet of floor space.

He says the man identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes has been sleeping some.

The chief also says the man holds strong anti-government views and the FBI has reason to believe the shooting of the driver was a hate crime.

 

MELISSA NELSON-GABRIEL
Associated Press

The Associated Press