Standoff involving child hostage continues for 3rd day in Alabama
Posted January 31, 2013 1:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A standoff between police and a gunman suspected of fatally shooting an Alabama school bus driver before holing up in an underground bunker with a young child continued for a third day on Thursday.
Authorities and an organization that tracks hate groups said on Wednesday the man is a Vietnam veteran with anti-government views.
Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies were bivouacked near the bunker in Midland City but offered few details about a standoff with the shooter.
Authorities said a 66-year-old school bus driver was killed after the gunman boarded a bus ferrying more than 20 children home from school on Tuesday.
The suspect demanded the driver let a student off the bus, Alabama media reported. When the driver refused, the man boarded the bus and shot the him before taking a six-year-old kindergarten student and fleeing the scene.
The shooting and subsequent hostage drama came as a national debate rages over gun violence, especially in schools, after a gunman shot dead 20 students and six staff members at a Connecticut elementary school last month.
In Alabama on Thursday morning, the suspected gunman remained holed up with the boy in the underground bunker on his property down a dirt road. Any efforts to negotiate with the man, or to stage a hostage rescue operation, were shrouded in secrecy with authorities declining to comment.
Television images showed security force officers, clad in camouflage uniforms and brandishing assault rifles, patrolling the area.
