Gunman Frees 2 in Day-Care Hostage Crisis

PLANO, Texas — A gunman held his own son and stepson hostage at a day-care center for a second day Thursday after releasing his last adult captive and a little girl.

Televised images of the 2-year-old girl, clutching a teddy bear and with her arm around the neck of a woman who was carrying her, angered the gunman, who then cut off talks with police for two hours.

By noon, though, telephone contact had resumed. The girl was identified by relatives as his goddaughter.

“The suspect saw the exchange of the hostage to the relative, and as such we have had a setback in the negotiations,” Police Chief Bruce Glasscock said Thursday morning.

He refused to elaborate on what disturbed the gunman.

By nightfall, Glasscock said negotiations were back on track, but he offered no guess on how long it will take to end the standoff.

“We’re prepared to go into the night and for as long as it takes,” Glasscock said. “It is our goal to bring those two hostages out safely.”

Identified by relatives as James Monroe Lipscomb Jr., the man released 60 children and three adults from the Rigsbee Child Development Center in the hours after the standoff began Wednesday.

A fourth adult was released just before midnight, while the last adult was freed about 4 a.m. Thursday.

Family members identified the last released toddler as Lipscomb’s godchild, Crystal. They said his 7-year-old stepson, Xavier, and 5-year-old son, Monroe, were still inside.

Police refused to confirm the man’s identity, but his brother, nephew and a neighbor identified him as the husband of day-care center worker Kris Lipscomb.

Kris Lipscomb’s sister, Joan Shaw, said the couple’s three-year marriage has been stormy. “I don’t know what snapped. They had marital problems, but everybody has,” Shaw said.

Attorney Ron Danforth, who says he has represented various members of the family for four years, confirmed that Kris Lipscomb had filed for divorce.

Police said the gunman had tried to rob someone outside the nearby Plano Bank & Trust on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before he stormed the day-care center in this suburb north of Dallas.

Some children were upset, but no one was injured.

Day-care center worker Denise Anderson was in charge of a classroom of six toddlers when the gunman took them hostage. She said that while he wasn’t necessarily threatening, he was angry. He paced the halls and kept saying he “meant business,” she said.