Law enforcement personnel walk away from the perimeter of the scene of a shooting and hostage taking in Midland City, Alabama, January 30, 2013. A gunman boarded an Alabama school bus ferrying children home from school on Tuesday and fatally shot the driver before fleeing with a young child and holing up in an underground bunker, Alabama media reported. Sheriff's officials confirmed that one person had been killed in a shooting involving a school bus in Alabama's Dale County but gave scant details other than to say that a child was present at the scene in Midland City. REUTERS/Phil Sears (UNITED STATES - Tags: CRIME LAW)View GalleryStandoff in Alabama
MIDLAND CITY, Alabama (Reuters) - The 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.
Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies were bivouacked near the bunker in Midland City but offered few details about an overnight standoff with the shooter that stretched into Wednesday evening.
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.
On Wednesday, the gunman remained holed up with the boy in the underground bunker on his property down a dirt road. Dale County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said the man and child were barricaded in "some kind of a tornado bunker."
The shooting comes as 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.
Schools in the area of the Alabama shooting were closed on Wednesday and will remain shuttered for the rest of the week.
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.
HOW THE HELL WOULD HE KNOW ????? WAS HE THERE??? DID HE TALK TO THE DEAD BUSS DRIVER?????? DID HE TALK TOT HE BOY IN THE BUNKER ????? DOES HE HAVE ANY KNOLWDEGE THE COPS DONT HAVE?????????/
"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.
Reuters could not independently verify the gunman's identity.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported on its Hatewatch blog that a chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff's Office identified the gunman as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee *****.
Investigator Tim Byrd said *****' friends and neighbors described him as a "survivalist" who did not trust the government, according to the law center blog.
"He was standoffish, didn't socialize or have any contact with anybody," Byrd told Hatewatch.
***** had not been on the law center's radar before the shooting and standoff, and there was nothing to suggest he was a member of any hate group, said senior fellow Mark Potok.
"What it looks like is that he's some kind of anti-government radical and survivalist," Potok told Reuters. "And exactly what that means, we don't know."
OK SO YOU DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT THE GUY BUT YOUR NOW TALKING ABOUT HIM ON YOUR NATIONAL POVERTTY LAW GROUPS BLA BLA BLOG WTF ARE YOU EVEN BEING INTERVIEWED??? YOU HAVE ZERO INFORMANTION ABOUT THE MAN OR THE SHOOTING ?????? YOUR OPINION IS ABOUT AS IMPORTANT AS THE GUY WIPES THE ASS OF OLD PEOPLE WTF ???????????????/
Court records show ***** had been due to appear for a bench trial on Wednesday following his arrest last month on a menacing charge.
James Edward Davis told CNN the arrest stemmed from an altercation he had with ***** that ended with ***** allegedly firing two gunshots from a pistol, as Davis sped off in his car.
"He fired the gun twice," said Davis, adding that he had a child inside the vehicle when the shooting occurred.
AND HE IS OUT FREE BRILLIANT.
Neighbors told the Dothan Eagle newspaper they also had seen ***** walk around his yard late at night with a shotgun and flashlight. Ronda Wilbur, who lives across the street from *****, said he once beat her family dog with a lead pipe. The dog later died from his injuries, she said.
AN THERE IS NO ARRREST RECORD OR REPORT WTF ???
(Reporting by Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile, Alabama; Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)