Alabama: Hostage drama continues

After allegedly fatally shooting a school bus driver on Tuesday, an Alabama man took a kindergartner from the bus and is now holding the boy hostage. The suspect appears to be an "antigovernment radical and survivalist," said one observer. ?

By Phil Sears,?Reuters / January 30, 2013

An undated handout photo of school bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. Poland who was fatally shot after a gunman boarded a bus ferrying more than 20 children home from school Tuesday. The shooter took a 6-year old kindergarten student, fled the scene and is now holed up in an underground bunker.

REUTERS/Dale County Board of Eductation/Handout

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A gunman suspected of fatally shooting an Alabama?school bus driver before holing up in an underground bunker with a young child is a?Vietnam?veteran with anti-government views, authorities and an organization that tracks hate groups said on Wednesday.

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Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies were bivouacked near the bunker in?Midland City?but offered few details about a standoff with the shooter that stretched into its second day on Wednesday.

Authorities said driver?Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, 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?Poland?refused, the man boarded the bus and shot the driver before taking a 6-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 Wednesday night, 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.

An Alabama?legislator, Representative?Steve Clouse, told reporters the hostage suffered from Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD but had apparently been able to receive his medication while held captive. The?Dale County Sheriff's Department?said the child was not believed to have been harmed.

Schools in the area of the Alabama?shooting were closed on Wednesday and will remain shuttered for the rest of the week.?

Driver hailed as hero?

Dale County Superintendent?Donny Bynum?lauded?Poland?as "a hero ... who gave his life to protect 21 students who are now home safely with their families."

The superintendent's assistant said the young boy still being held by the gunman appeared to have been chosen at random.

"Emotions are high, and it's a struggle?for us all?to make sense of something so senseless, but let us keep this young student, his family and Mr.?Poland's family in our thoughts and prayers," Bynum said in a statement.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/sDUAZVmBSpE/Alabama-Hostage-drama-continues

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