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We're a full day into the ongoing Alabama hostage situation — the one where a man killed a bus driver and kidnapped a six-year-old all the way to an underground bunker — and the child is safe as far as authorities know, but more details have trickled out about the unstable man behind the disturbing crime, including accounts that he was a "time bomb" with "survivalist" anti-American views.
Here's what we knew as of this morning: 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes is a Vietnam war veteran whose neighbours were wary of his odd behavior. Two of Dykes' neighbors told The Dothan Eagle that he was always slightly unhinged. Dykes was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to face charges of "menacing." Neighbor James Edward Davis Jr. alleges that Dykes approached him and his daughter with a gun on December 10, and accused Davis of driving on his lawn. But NBC reports there's no indication the charge had anything to do with the hostage situation.
Davis also told the Eagle that Dykes was fond of shovelling. "It's the craziest thing. He will be outside in his yard digging dirt at 2:30 in the morning," Davis said. Another neighbor, Michael Creel, said Dykes "thinks the government’s out to get him," and that "he's not right in the head."