Alabama Hostage Crisis Ends With Five Year Old Boy Safe

 The hostage crisis in Alabama is over.  Authorities say the five year old boy that has been held hostage for seven days in an underground bunker is safe.

The kidnapper Jimmy Lee dykes is dead, though authorities have yet to say how he was killed. There were reports of gunfire and an explosion in in the area. 

Dykes grabbed the boy after boarding a school bus and allegedly fatally shot to death the driver. The little boy, identified only as Ethan, reportedly has autism. 

Throughout the standoff, negotiators had been lowering medicine, comfort food, coloring books, and toys down a ventilation shaft into the bunker.   (Metro Networks Inc.)