BREAKING NEWS

Item #1

5:13 PM – Feb 4, 2012 –

A 5-year-old boy held hostage nearly a week is safe and the Alabama man who held him hostage is dead, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Follow complete coverage of breaking news on CNN TV, http://www.cnn.com and CNN Mobile.

Item #2

Let us pray…Thank you Father God for resolving this standoff/hostage situation and keeping the boy safe.  Father God in heaven, we know you love this boy more than even his parents do and that you care about every human being because we are created in Your Image and Likeness and that is what makes human beings the target of Satan.  Satan and all evildoers hate the Image of God.  Thank You, from the bottom of our hearts and we give You praise, glory and thanksgiving.  Be with this child named Ethan and his parents and heal all the trauma they have faced for the past week.  We pray for the family of the heroic bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr, 66, to comfort his family in the period of mourning and for all the days of their lives.  In Jesus Christ’s name, we boldly pray.  Amen.

Item #3

Alabama hostage standoff ends with 5-year-old boy safe, reports say

MIDLAND CITY, Alabama — After seven days spent hostage in Jimmy Lee Dykes’ underground bunker in Midland City, 5-year-old Ethan is free, sources have told AL.com.

The hostage situation ended sometime on Monday. Sources at the scene confirm that Ethan is safe and the hostage-taker, 65-year-old Dykes, has been killed. It was not immediately clear how Dykes died.

Daryle Hendry, who lives about a quarter-mile from Dykes’ bunker, told the Associated Press he heard a boom followed by a gunshot this afternoon. Reports did not indicate what may have caused the commotion.

Details are still emerging.

Read More: http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2013/02/alabama_hostage_standoff_ends.html

Item #4

Ala. hostage situation involving boy, 5, ends with death of gunman

The abducted boy, Ethan, has been taken to a hospital about eight miles from the place where he had been held hostage, Alabama Rep. Steve Clouse told CNN.

Authorities entered the bunker where the 5-year-old hostage was being held after negotiations deteriorated, FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson told reporters. After Jimmy Lee Dykes was seen holding a gun, FBI agents entered and rescued the boy, he said.

A neighbor of the man who held a 5-year-old boy hostage for nearly a week said Monday he heard it end.

“I heard a big boom and then I heard, I believe I heard, rifle shots,” Byron Martin told CNN. “Literally made me jump off the ground.”