Before shooting the bus driver, Dykes demanded two young boys to be handed over to him. Of course those who can understand what was said and could read the signals of the situation, ran to the back of the bus and huddled together. This left a vulnerable 5-year-old autistic boy standing where he could be grabbed easily. Then the bus driver, Charles Albert Poland, Jr., 66, was shot and killed and died a hero as he tried to prevent the little boy from being taken.
The shooter and kidnapper is Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old former truck driver, known to the authorities as being 'anti-American, a 'survivalist' who spews the Amendments to the Constitution every chance he gets and someone who built a bunker just for this purpose.
This is every parent's worst fear...regardless of whether or not there is a diagnosis. But in order to keep this from another fatality from happening, the mother is being kept at the scene, away from media, safely secluded with law enforcement. The child's medications are being sent down through the same pvc pipe the negotiators stay in contact with the kidnapper. Still, the situation this mother and family, and most of the child, must be harrowing.
Immediately after reading this article, go to the Autism Safety Management site (www.autismsafetymanagement.com) and check out what Dennis Debaudt has said for years. He offers training in how to keep kids with autism safe. Talk with your child, prepare him for what to do.
Credits: By KEVIN DOLAK (@kdolak) , GIO BENITEZ, PIERRE THOMAS (@PierreTABC) and MOSHEH GAINS, ABC News.
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