5-year-old kidnapped, held hostage for 3 days
A 5-year-old Alabama kindergartner was kidnapped from a school bus Tuesday afternoon and, as of Thursday, was still being held hostage, The Washington Post reported.
A team of federal, state and local officers had few details on the state of the hostage situation as of Thursday morning.
Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, reportedly stopped a Midland City, Ala., school bus Tuesday afternoon and shot its driver four times before carrying away a random boy, identified only as Ethan, to an underground bunker on his property, The Washington Post reported.
Officers, led by the FBI, have staked out the perimeter of Dykes’ property and evacuated neighbors.
The boy being held reportedly suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, will turn 6 next week.
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Kindergartner expelled for bringing toy gun to class
The recent string of school gun-related violence has administrators across the country exercising particular caution against any potential threats, but the parents of a Sumter kindergarten student say their school district has gone too far.
Six-year-old Naomi McKinney was expelled last month after a clear plastic toy gun was found in her backpack at Alice Drive Elementary School, The State reported.
The child’s parents say the Sumter School District overreacted in removing their daughter from the school.
“I didn’t want to cause any harm, I was trying to show my friends this little tiny gun that was kind of pretty. I just thought they would like to see it,” Naomi said, as quoted in The State.
Seven Alice Drive teachers and administrators supported the McKinneys’ appeal of the expulsion, which was denied by district officials.
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Great white heads north after winter in Southeast
A great white shark that was spotted along the Southeast coast this past winter has moved along to colder waters.
Known as Mary Lee, the 3,500-pound shark reportedly traveled to the coast off Long Island, N.Y. Thursday, according to multiple news outlets.
The current whereabouts of another great white, Genie, that had been tagged by marine scientists along with Mary Lee are unknown, but she was spotted off the Georgia-South Carolina coastline earlier in January, The State reported.
The two are the only great whites to have ever been tagged in the North Atlantic, according to Fox News.
“I felt like, at the moment, Mary Lee was the most legendary fish caught in history,” researcher Chris Fischer told Fox. “We were at the home of ‘Jaws,’ we were capturing a great white to save it and solve the puzzle of the great white.”
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor