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Alabama abduction: Sheriff thanks man for ‘taking care of our child’

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As an Alabama boy spent his fifth day holed up in an underground bunker with his kidnapper, authorities thanked the man Saturday for caring for the child but remained tight-lipped about whether he had made any demands.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said negotiators were in “constant contact” with the kidnapping suspect, believed to be 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, whom neighbors characterized as menacing and prone to violent outbursts. One neighbor said Dykes bludgeoned her dog to death with a lead pipe after it roamed onto his property.

Speaking through a 4-inch ventilation pipe, Dykes told negotiators he has electric heaters and blankets in the bunker, Olson said.

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Authorities also provided coloring books, toys and medication for the boy, believed to be 5 years old and identified by neighbors as Ethan. He is said to have Asperger’s syndrome and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“I want to thank him for taking care of our child,” Olson said in a televised news conference Saturday. “That’s very important.”

Olson declined to answer a reporter’s question about whether Dykes had made any demands.

The hostage situation began Tuedsay afternoon, authorites said, when a gunman snatched Ethan from a school bus after shooting and killing the driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr.

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Dykes’ neighbor Michael Creel told the Associated Press he suspected the standoff was a way to make a political statement. “I believe he wants to rant and rave about politics and government. He’s very concerned about his property. He doesn’t want his stuff messed with,” Creel said.

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marisa.gerber@latimes.com

Twitter: @marisagerber

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