Gunman Asking Homeless Aid Frees Hostage Students

After a 12-hour siege, a gunman with a history of mental illness surrendered to police Tuesday night and released the last of more than 80 children he and another man had held hostage at a private Baptist elementary school here.

The gunman, identified by police as James L. Harvey, 43, of San Antonio, Tex., had staged the takeover in an effort to draw attention to the plight of the nation’s homeless and hungry, and had demanded to speak with President Reagan, Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt and Tuscaloosa Mayor Al DuPont.

Harvey surrendered at 8:30 p.m., giving up his final group of 26 children and one of two teachers he had held, after viewing a videotaped message made by Hunt. The tape had been rushed to Tuscaloosa from Montgomery, the state capital, 90 miles to the south.

‘You Betrayed Me!’

As Harvey left the school building, policemen wrestled him to the ground. Harvey reportedly thought he had an agreement to hold a news conference after putting down his rifle and releasing his final hostages. “I trusted you! You betrayed me!” he shouted.

But DuPont denied that officials had broken their word. “The kids are safe and are all reunited with their families,” he said. Law officials said none of the children appeared to have been harmed.

“It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever been through in my life,” said Donna Holmes, mother of 9-year-old Bubba Holmes, a fourth-grader. “I’m going to put him under my wing and keep him there for a while.”

Bubba said: “It was really scary at first but he talked real nice to us and showed us his gun.”

Hunt issued a statement saying he had promised Harvey in the videotape that he would be granted a pardon and immunity, as Harvey had demanded. But the governor said the promise carried no legal weight.

“I’m just glad we were able to resolve it and none of those children were hurt,” Hunt said in Montgomery.

Gunmen Wore Ski Masks

The two gunmen--one white and one black--had donned ski masks and entered the school about 8:40 a.m. The black gunman, later identified as James Rhodes Jr., 43, of Tuscaloosa, evidently surrendered and was taken into custody about 1 p.m.

Alan R. Goodwin, an educational psychologist and director of a local community mental health center, was called in by police to serve as a liaison during negotiations. He said Harvey’s companion was a man Harvey had picked up off the street and talked into taking part in the school takeover.

Dan Cates, a Birmingham reporter also involved in the negotiations, quoted Harvey as saying of his companion: “I basically kidnaped this guy.”

Harvey first released more than 40 of his hostages about 2 p.m.

Then, about 3:30 p.m., he released nine more in exchange for a chance to talk with an Associated Press reporter. He also released one of the two teachers he held, Judy Dunn, who teaches fourth grade and is an expectant mother.

About 6:00 p.m., two more students were freed, leaving the final group of students and one teacher, Mary Alice Blanton, still in captivity.

Second Grade Escaped

The children taken hostage were members of the first, third, fourth and fifth grades at the school, authorities said. They said the second-grade class managed to escape after their teacher grew suspicious during the break-in and led them to safety. The sixth-grade class was away from the school on a field trip. The children first released were in the first and fifth grades.

Soon after the takeover, Tuscaloosa police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents surrounded the school and, along with DuPont and other public officials, began negotiations with the gunmen.

The AP reporter, Hoyt Harwell of Birmingham, described Harvey as a tall, thin man in his 40s with a graying beard. He was wearing a visored cap and held a rifle in his right hand, Harwell told reporters after his meeting with the gunman.

Harwell said the gunman told him that he was “willing to die” and had “put my life on the line” to dramatize the plight of the homeless and hungry.

“If I can’t accomplish anything any other way, I can do it this way,” Harwell quoted the gunman as saying. “Maybe I can wake people up and get them to understand.

‘Things Are Awfully Wrong’

“People on the street don’t have anyplace to sleep or anything to eat. Things are awfully wrong and nobody’s doing anything about it.”

Harwell said Harvey refused to give his name to him, saying: “My name is not important.” The gunman also described the takeover as a “political act, not a criminal act,” Harwell said.

The reporter said he spoke to the gunman in the hallway of the elementary school outside the third-grade classroom door. The door to the fourth grade, about 10 steps down the hall, was closed, Harwell said.

He said Harvey described his weapon as a “.223 rifle,” similar to an M-16 and made in Israel. The gunman held the rifle at an angle over the reporter’s head as the two talked, Harwell said.

The reporter said the gunman also wanted immunity from prosecution for his act.

Harwell said the gunman told his attorney, Bob Prince, who was appointed by the city at the gunman’s request, to pick out “10 of the scaredest kids and take them out.”

That number was reduced to nine, however, because Harvey apparently was unsuccessful in getting an adult hostage to take the place of teacher Dunn, Harwell said.

‘They Were Very Scared’

Harwell said he saw two of the nine freed children--Jason Johnson and Rebecca McDuff, both 10--and “both said they were very scared.”

Goodwin described the gunman as a war veteran and “drifter from San Antonio” who had been around Tuscaloosa for some time.

“He’s been a problem in this neighborhood,” Goodwin said. “He’s been aggressive, disruptive and disorderly. He’s got a lot of domestic problems.”

The private school, which runs from kindergarten to the 12th grade, is all white and located in a predominantly black downtown neighborhood. The elementary classes, grades one through six, are housed in a separate building in the school’s educational complex.

“I’ve been out of my mind since 9 o’clock this morning when I was in Montgomery” for an Air Force Reserve meeting, said the Rev. Ken Cheek, pastor of West End Baptist Church, which runs the school. “This is a time when you really need your prayers.”