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Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts
Sen. Rubio drowning in 'water-gate'
Labels: LifestyleiPhone, iPad and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.Mom of boy held in bunker is worried
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Phil McGraw speaks with mother of former Alabama child hostage
- She tells him she worried about trying to put him back on a school bus
- Ethan told her the Army killed the 'bad man'
- The 6-year-old tells his mom that 'My bus driver is dead'
(CNN) -- Jennifer Kirkland says she caught her 6-year-old son Ethan just staring at a school bus the other day.
He was mesmerized, his eyes locked on the yellow vehicle. He didn't say a thing, and she didn't know what to say to him.
The last time he was on a bus, he was sitting just behind the driver -- as he always did -- waiting for his stop so he could go home.
But the "bad man" got on, and killed the driver, his buddy Mr. Poland.
Appearing on the "Dr. Phil" show, Kirkland told Phil McGraw she was worried how her little boy was going to react the next time she tried to put him on the bus to school.
After being kidnapped, the recovery ahead
Photos: Alabama bunker standoff
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Ethan has been having a hard time sleeping, she told the psychologist turned syndicated daytime talk show host.
He thrashes his arms, tosses and turns and sometimes he calls out.
It has only been almost 10 days since the FBI sent a rescue team into the bunker in Midland City, Alabama, where Ethan was held hostage for nearly a week by Jimmy Lee Dykes.
His mother hasn't asked Ethan what happened when he was there.
"I have not talked to Ethan about it," she said in an interview aired Wednesday. "I don't know how to. As a mother I want him to know that I'm there if he needs to talk. I don't know how to respond because I have never been through this."
Inside the bunker: From storm shelter to boy's prison
Ethan has seen two people shot to death. Dykes shot bus driver Charles Poland several times before he carried Ethan, who had fainted, off the bus and into an underground bunker Dykes had built on his property.
Then the FBI killed Dykes when negotiations broke down and authorities felt they had to rescue the boy before Dykes, who had a handgun, did something rash.
"The Army came in and shot the bad man," Kirkland said Ethan told her.
Kirkland said she had hoped Dykes wouldn't be harmed.
"From the very beginning, I had already forgiven Mr. Dykes even though he had my child," she said. "I could not be angry through this. My job was to be the mother."
She thinks Dykes had a soft spot for Ethan because he has disabilities. Dykes took care of her boy as best he could, she said.
He even fried chicken for the boy.
Still, as the crisis continued, she worried that Dykes might be spooked by something her child did -- or that he had enough supplies to stay down there for months. She worried her boy would think she had abandoned him.
She asked authorities to let her speak to Dykes.
"That's my baby. He's my world. He's my everything," she said. "Everything I do I do for him. And I was afraid I wasn't going to get him back."
When she did get him back, he was in the hospital, putting stickers on everyone in sight.
"Hey, bug, I sure have missed you," she recounted.
"I missed you, too," he answered.
FBI: Bombs found in Alabama kidnapper's bunker
Now she worries that even though he seems like the same playful little boy, there is an emotional storm ahead.
McGraw told her to talk to Ethan about his feelings, not what happened to him in the bunker.
"Let that decay in his young mind," he said.
McGraw asked Ethan a few questions, but as 6-year-olds are apt to do, he answered most with a "Yes" or a "No."
But when the doctor asked him how he got to school, Ethan said, "On my bus, but my ..."
Then he walked over to his mother and as if telling a secret, whispered in her ear, "But my bus driver is dead."
Kirkland told McGraw that it was Poland who helped Ethan conquer his fear of descending the steep school bus steps. Poland would cheer Ethan on and one day when the child hesitated and the mother went to help, the driver said, "Let him do it."
Since then, Ethan has had no problem.
But now his cheerleader won't be there, and Kirkland is anguished about her boy.
"Mr. Poland put him behind him so he could keep a good eye on him," she said.
Ethan hasn't been back to school yet. He's been busy opening birthday presents and playing with his favorite toys. On Wednesday, he made a new friend in Gov. Robert Bentley.
There's a picture from the event where little Ethan is sitting underneath the governor's desk. The child is beaming.
"Ethan is a loving, forgiving child," Kirkland said. "He is easy to go up to a perfect stranger and say, 'Can I have a hug?'"
That was the boy who went into that bunker. She is concerned it's not the child who came out.
Obama's 'I'm in charge' speech
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- David Rothkopf: With this State of the Union speech, Obama returned to work of governing
- He says Obama's manner was confident, purposeful, sent message to fellow politicians
- He focused on economy, investing in Americans: jobs, energy, education, immigration
- Rothkopf: Obama remarks taking on gun lobby showed his new vigor as empowered advocate
Editor's note: David Rothkopf is CEO and editor-at-large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
(CNN) -- It is sometimes said of a great actor that he could hold an audience spellbound while reading a laundry list. This is essentially what President Obama tried to do on Tuesday night. As State of the Union addresses go, his was artless. It lacked inspired phrases or compelling narrative. Save for the energy he gave it at key moments, it was pedestrian.
It was also very important.
It was important because with it, Obama returned in earnest to the work of governing. Having won a clear victory in November, and having spent the intervening months putting out the wildfires our Congress likes to set, he delivered word Tuesday night that he had a clear and full agenda for his second term.
David Rothkopf
Candidate Obama, the man who has dominated American politics for most of the last five years, seems gone for good. That version of our president may have had more poetry about him. But this version wants to actually get down to governing.
Whether he can or not remains to be seen. Indeed, it seems certain that many, if not most, of the goals he set on Tuesday night will elude him. But the speech was also important because it sent several clear messages to his fellow politicians.
He said, "I won. I am in charge. I will not shy away from a progressive agenda."
He said, "I know what I want. I'm not afraid of defeat as I was in the past. I will never run in another political campaign again."
Oh, he didn't say these things literally. You won't find those words in the transcript. But look at the tape -- you'll find them in his body language and between the lines of his speech.
The economy was his centerpiece -- but it was not just another campaign speech about growth. It was a speech about, as one of his team put it earlier in the day, "growing the economy from the middle out." He spoke about restoring the middle class and creating opportunity. From the beginning it was clear that this was no longer a speech about recovering from a crisis. It was not another speech about America at war. Obama's concern -- the crisis he was addressing -- was that incomes and job creation are stagnant even as the economy grows and corporate profits hit record levels.
His prescription was clear. We must invest in America and in its people. In infrastructure, domestic energy resources, cleaner energy and energy efficiency, education, research and building the workforce through immigration reform. Obama called for raising the minimum wage to help lift up the poorest and better reward those among them who are willing to work for a living. He also sounded the theme that we must do all these things to better compete in the global economy, citing the examples of China, Germany and others whose examples he said we should heed and exceed.
Even the portion of his speech that dealt with foreign policy was oriented to the domestic economy. Yes, he began with the newsworthy announcement that he would bring home half of all troops in Afghanistan by next year and end our war there the following year. Yes, he talked about defeating al Qaeda even as it shape-shifted its way around the world. And he addressed drone oversight, North Korea's nuclear test, Iran's nuclear program and the Middle East.
But many of his statements on these issues were formulaic. And the thrust of all of them -- even the boldest, like his return to his Prague promise of working to reduce nuclear stockpiles -- was enabling America to focus more energy on rebuilding its strength at home. Furthermore, perhaps the most important international thrusts had nothing to do with war at all. (His comments on cyberthreats, for example, were really directed at protecting intrusions against the private sector.)
Opinion: Obama dares Congress to get the job done
Obama's renewed focus on climate, including his call for "market-based" solutions -- meaning reopening the idea of carbon markets or other such mechanisms, a couple of years after such ideas were considered by many to be dead -- was a return to promises made long ago. It was also a recognition of the urgency with which this global threat must be addressed. His new secretary of state, John Kerry, was the leading voice in the Senate on these issues and has already told his staff how important these and other environmental concerns would be. This issue was raised early in the speech, even though it is clearly something requiring global cooperation. It was an important shift of emphasis.
Similarly, perhaps the biggest new foreign policy initiative Obama called for was opening of talks to achieve a trans-Atlantic trade agreement. This is a powerful idea that could be the centerpiece of second-term international economic policy. It would further enhance trade with the European Union, strengthen our Atlantic alliance and set the stage for its modernization in the 21st century, and open the way for a new global round of trade talks. And finally, since agricultural trade reform is so central to big emerging powers like Brazil and India, it would help strengthen our relations with them.
Of all the elements of the speech, however, the most compelling and emotional was Obama's concluding section demanding a vote on reforming America's gun laws. Citing gun deaths in his hometown, Chicago, with the victims of violence in the gallery watching him, he demonstrated his newfound confidence by standing up to one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, tackling an issue he himself had sidestepped earlier in his presidency.
Opinion: In 2013, democracy talks back
At that moment of the speech -- calling for real change in the wake of tragedies like the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut -- what we saw was a president in full, a man who knew his job, knew his power and was not afraid. He might or might not get the reforms he wanted. But he could certainly send a message to even his most obdurate opponents that he would use whatever tools and influence he had to demand they at least take a stand.
One can only hope he will do more, go past getting a vote to getting the results we need -- background checks, bans on assault weapons and high-volume magazines, mental health care reform, a real effort to stop gun trafficking. But whatever the outcome, at that moment Tuesday night, the focused energy of this president at this stage of his presidency reverberated through the rafters of the Capitol and suggested that this long speech was not a laundry list but a to-do list, an agenda for change offered up by a confident and empowered advocate.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Rothkopf.
Police: No body yet found in hunt for Dorner
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: San Bernardino sheriff's spokeswoman says smoldering cabin too hot to enter
- Sources earlier tell CNN that LAPD reported body found, ID'd as suspect Dorner
- One sheriff's deputy in gun battle has died, other expected to survive
- Dorner is accused of killing an officer and the daughter and fiance of another cop last week
Follow the story here and at CNN affiliates KCBS/KCAL, KABC, and KTLA.
Near Big Bear Lake, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles police and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office moved Tuesday night to counter widespread reports that a body believed to be that of renegade ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner had been recovered from a burning cabin near Big Bear Lake, California.
"No body has been pulled out," LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said at a news conference. "No reports of a body being ID'd are true."
The cabin area was "too hot to make entry," Smith added.
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the lead agency in the case, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department echoed that, saying at a separate news conference that authorities believe whoever was in the cabin never left.
"They believe that there is a body in there, but it is not safe to go inside," she told reporters. She added that officials believed there was still live ammunition in the cabin, which was still smoldering.
CNN and other media quoted numerous sources earlier in the evening as saying authorities had removed a body from the rubble of the fire and identified it as Dorner.
The intense fire, which burned for hours as authorities waited at a distance, began after a SWAT team stormed a cabin near Big Bear Lake where a suspect -- who authorities said matched Dorner's description -- had holed up after a fatal shootout with San Bernadino County sheriff's deputies.
The cabin caught fire after police detonated smoke devices inside the cabin, a law enforcement source told CNN.
One of two San Bernadino County sheriff's deputies wounded earlier Tuesday in the shootout with the suspect died, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters at California's Loma Linda University Medical Center. The other deputy was in surgery "but he should be fine," McMahon said.
The wounded officers were taken to the Loma Linda facility after shots were exchanged with a man at a police roadblock near Big Bear Lake, the sheriff's office said earlier in a statement.
Tuesday's confrontations began when a California Fish and Wildlife officer was driving down a highway near Big Bear and recognized a man fitting the description of Dorner driving a vehicle in the other direction. The wildlife officer chased the vehicle and the driver opened fire on the officer before abandoning the truck, a statement from the agency said.
The officer's vehicle was hit numerous times, the statement said. While not specifically referring to the officer involved in the shootout, the statement said the agency's officers "are all safe and accounted for."
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, said the suspect fled into the woods then into the cabin where he fired at the approaching deputies and holed up though the afternoon, still exchanging gunfire with authorities.
Later as the fire burned, with authorities staying back, she said authorities weren't 100% sure the suspect was still in the cabin.
Authorities have been searching for Dorner since he was named as the suspect in the shooting deaths February 3 of the daughter of his police union representative and her fiance. Police also say he killed one officer in Riverside, California, and wounded two others last Thursday.
Ex-cop at center of California manhunt
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The violent spree, authorities say, was part of Dorner's campaign of vigilante justice for what he believes was his unfair termination.
Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. Andy Neiman said Tuesday that the department had received more than 1,000 tips on Dorner's whereabouts. Some of the calls have come from Dorner's acquaintances or people who think they have spotted the fugitive.
The pace of tips being given to investigators increased by 400% after the city of Los Angeles put up a $1 million reward on Sunday for information leading to Dorner's arrest and conviction, Neiman said.
The search for the 270-pound, 6-foot Dorner has focused on the Big Bear Lake area, where authorities say his burning truck was discovered last week.
Talk Back: Why do some see Chistopher Dorner as a vigilante hero?
Over the past two weeks, the search, considered one of the largest in the history of Southern California, has taken authorities from Orange County to the border of Mexico and from Los Angeles to Big Bear Lake.
"Big Bear's still where we're looking right now," Neiman said Tuesday. The search area surrounds where Dorner's burning truck was discovered last Thursday .
"Until we can confirm that he's either there or he's not there, this investigation has to stick with what we know and what we know is that we found evidence that he was there," Neiman said.
While the LAPD spokesman told reporters he was "not ready to confirm" that a man seen in security camera video from a Southern California sporting goods store was Dorner, the Los Angeles Times quoted unnamed law enforcement sources saying it was him.
The video, published Monday by the celebrity news website TMZ.com, shows the man carrying what appears to be scuba equipment at the Sports Chalet store in Torrance, California, on February 1, two days before the killings of Monica Quan, the daughter of the police union rep, and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence.
A "no bail" arrest warrant was issued for Dorner after the Riverside County district attorney filed a murder charge Monday against him in the killing of Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain.
"That allows him to be apprehended anywhere within California, out of state or out of the country," District Attorney Paul Zellerbach told reporters Monday.
The murder charge is accompanied by two "special circumstances," including killing a police officer on duty and firing a weapon from a vehicle.
Dorner was also charged with the attempted murder of three other police officers, including another Riverside officer who was wounded when Crain was killed. That officer, whose name has not been released, is in a lot of pain and faces "many surgeries," Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said.
Dorner is also accused of opening fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburb of Corona.
There has been speculation, based in part on an arrest warrant affidavit filed last week, that Dorner could have crossed state lines into Nevada or made his way to Mexico.
LAPD reopens case that led to Dorner's dismissal
Over the weekend, LAPD said it was reopening the case that resulted in his termination.
Dorner accused his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest in 2007. The LAPD ruled the complaint unfounded and kicked Dorner off the force for filing a false complaint.
Dorner challenged his firing in court and lost.
Suspect's grudge dates back to 2007 complaint
In a manifesto released last week, Dorner blamed racism and corruption in the LAPD for his termination and vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against LAPD officers and their families. He called it a "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department he says mistreated him.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had a different term for it Sunday.
"This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism," he told reporters Sunday. "This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."
Timeline in manhunt
Targeting police
Authorities say Dorner began making good on his threats on February 3 when he allegedly killed Quan, 27, and Lawrence in an Irvine parking lot, south of Los Angeles.
According to the manifesto, Randal Quan, Monica Quan's father, bungled Dorner's LAPD termination appeal.
Randal Quan represented Dorner during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his firing. The officer was among dozens named in the manifesto.
The retired officer told investigators he received a call from someone identifying himself as Dorner who told him he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to a federal arrest warrant affidavit.
Investigators traced the call to Vancouver, Washington, but based on the timing of other sightings, they don't believe Dorner was in Vancouver at the time, the affidavit states.
Days later, early Thursday morning, Dorner allegedly opened fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburban city of Corona.
Roughly 20 minutes later, Dorner allegedly fired on two officers in the nearby city of Riverside, killing Crain and wounding another.
Since then, the LAPD has provided security and surveillance details for more than 50 police officers and their families -- many of whom were named in the manifesto.
Additionally, the LAPD is no longer releasing the police chief's schedule to the public or the media.
'Ghosts' of the LAPD's past
It was Dorner's allegations of racism at the LAPD that led Beck over the weekend to reopen the investigation into his claims.
Beck said he was not doing it to "appease a murderer" but out of concern that Dorner's allegations will resurrect a painful part of the department's history.
LAPD haunted by past
For years, the LAPD was dogged by complaints of racism and corruption. In 1965 and 1992, the city was rocked by racial riots that were sparked, in part, by claims of police racism and brutality.
"I hear the same things you hear: The ghosts of the past of the Los Angeles Police Department," Beck said Sunday. "I hear that people think maybe there is something to what he says, and I want to put that to rest."
Despite numerous reviews of Dorner's case, he said it has "never been reviewed by me."
"If there is anything new, we will deal with it, and we will deal with it in a public way," Beck said.
CNN's Paul Vercammen, Stan Wilson, Casey Wian, Kathleen Johnston, Alan Duke, Matt Smith, Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Martinez and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
North Korea conducts 3rd nuclear test, officials say
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: "We believe North Korea conducted its third nuclear test," a South Korean official says
- A magnitude 4.9 disturbance takes place in area of previous underground nuclear tests
- There is little or no history of natural seismic activity in the area
- North Korea said last month it would carry out a third nuclear test
Hong Kong (CNN) -- North Korea appeared to have conducted its third underground nuclear bomb test Tuesday, officials and experts said, as U.S. seismologists reported activity centered near the site of the secretive regime's two previous atomic blasts.
Although North Korea had warned the world of its plans to carry out a new test in a vitriolic statement last month, the move is still likely to rattle the security situation in Northeast Asia as analysts try to determine the power and complexity of the device the North is thought to have detonated.
If confirmed, it would be the first nuclear test under the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, who appears to be sticking closely to his father's policy of building up the isolated state's military deterrent to keep its foes at bay, shrugging off the resulting international condemnation and sanctions.
It also provided a provocative reminder of a seemingly intractable foreign policy challenge for President Barack Obama ahead of his State of the Union address later Tuesday.
The area around the reported epicenter of the magnitude 4.9 disturbance in northeastern North Korea has little or no history of earthquakes or natural seismic hazards, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps. The disturbance Tuesday took place at a depth of about 1 kilometer, the USGS said.
Officials suspect a nuclear test
Government officials and security analysts had little doubt about the cause of the quake.
"We believe North Korea conducted its third nuclear test," said Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean defense ministry. He added that the magnitude of the "artificial tremor" suggested the size of the blast was in the order of 6 to 7 kilotons, more powerful than the North's two prior nuclear tests.
"If we come to a final conclusion that it is a nuclear test," he said, "then we will consult with the international community and respond strongly."
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that based on past cases, "We believe there is a possibility that North Korea conducted a nuclear test."
There were no initial reports concerning the activity on the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday.
"It's a nuclear test," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "That magnitude and that location -- it's awfully unlikely it's anything else."
In Washington, a senior administration official said the United States was working to confirm a nuclear test.
The China Earthquake Network Center said on its website that the seismic disturbance in North Korea was a "suspected explosion."
News breaks at a quiet time in Asia
The suspected test took place at a time when several East Asian countries, including China, North Korea's major ally, are observing public holidays for the Lunar New Year, which began Sunday.
It also comes ahead of the birthday on Saturday of Kim Jong Il, the former North Korean leader who died in December 2011 and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un.
North Korea announced last month that it was planning a new nuclear test and more long-range rocket launches, all of which it said were part of a new phase of confrontation with the United States.
It made the threats two days after the United Nations Security Council had approved the broadening of sanctions on the reclusive, Stalinist regime in response to the North's launching of a long-range rocket in December that succeeded in putting a satellite in orbit.
Pyongyang said it carried out the launch for peaceful purposes, but it was widely considered to be a test of ballistic missile technology.
U.S. analysts say North Korea's first bomb test, in October 2006, produced an explosive yield at less than 1 kiloton (1,000 tons) of TNT. A second test in May 2009 is believed to have been about two kilotons, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate committee in 2012.
By comparison, the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was a 15-kiloton device.
In May 2012, North Korea said it had amended its constitution to formally proclaim itself a "nuclear state."
CNN's Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's K.J. Kwon in Seoul, South Korea; Yoko Wakatsuki in Tokyo; Dana Ford and Matt Smith in Atlanta, Georgia; and Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report. Journalist Connie Young in Beijing also contributed reporting.
Almost famous: See celebs' early roles
Labels: LifestyleBy Henry Hanks, CNN
updated 5:05 PM EST, Thu February 7, 2013
Almost famous: See celebs' early roles
Labels: LifestyleBy Henry Hanks, CNN
updated 5:05 PM EST, Thu February 7, 2013
Rogue ex-cop is armed, trained, out there somewhere
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- As darkness and snow falls, police scale back manhunt until Saturday
- "The possibility exists that he is here, somewhere in the forest," official says
- Christopher Dorner may have as many as 30 guns with him, a source says
- Dorner is trained in counterinsurgency and intelligence, the source says
Big Bear Lake, California (CNN) -- The ex-cop suspected in the killings of an officer and two others remained at large Friday as darkness fell over a mountain forest and police suspended their manhunt until Saturday morning.
"Once it gets dark out there and the snow keeps falling and they have no air support, I don't know how effective they would be in that situation," spokeswoman Cindy Bachman of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
Throughout Friday, more than 100 officers searched through fresh snow for clues to the whereabouts of Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, a fired Los Angeles Police Department officer and former Navy lieutenant suspected in the three killings.
Dorner allegedly wrote a manifesto declaring a war of revenge on police, authorities said.
By Friday night, police were expected to have completed a search of vacant cabins in the snowpacked forest of the San Bernardino Mountains near the resort town of Big Bear Lake, Bachman said.
Police on Thursday searched 400 homes in the Big Bear Lake area and were completing searches of 200 more on Friday, she said. Overnight patrols in the town were to be beefed up with 12 extra two-officer teams, she said.
"The search is continuing," Bachman said. "First of all, they have to rest. They have been going at this for two days."
Police teams were dressed in snow gear, holding the trigger guards on their assault-style rifles while scouring eight square miles near Big Bear Lake, a popular skiing area two hours east of Los Angeles.
The mountains were the focus of Friday's search effort because police had found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck a day earlier near the resort community.
The truck had a broken axle, which would have prevented the vehicle from moving, and footprints appear to show that Dorner doubled back into the community, said a source with knowledge of the investigation.
It was unclear where Dorner may have gone from there or by what means, the source said.
But Bachman told reporters Friday: "The possibility exists that he is here, somewhere in the forest, so we're going to keep looking...until we determine that he's not here."
Guns found in the truck were also burned, but authorities believe Dorner may have as many as 30 guns with him, the source said. Dorner was in the Navy and is trained in counterinsurgency and intelligence, the source said.
Two inches of snow Friday coated the mountaintop pine trees and roads around Big Bear Lake, leading motorists to use tire chains. Up to six more inches were expected. But the snow was regarded as a godsend because tracking a man on the run would be easier, authorities said.
Despite the intense search, authorities allowed nearby ski resorts to remain open Friday because they don't believe Dorner is in Big Bear Lake. At one point, a smiling snowboarder whizzed by police and media, seemingly oblivious to an ongoing news conference and the seriousness of the manhunt.
Jay Obernolte, mayor of Big Bear Lake community, described Friday as having "a beautiful winter morning." Residents weren't fearful, he said, adding that "many of the people here are armed."
"Is there panic in our community?" Obernolte asked reporters rhetorically. "No, there is no panic. We're a hardy people in the San Bernardino Mountains."
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said the snowfall slowed some searching done by foot, but police pushed onward.
"The snow is great for tracking folks, as well as looking at each individual cabin to see if there's any sign of forced entry," McMahon said.
"We're going to continue searching until we either discover he left the mountain or we find him," he added. "It's extremely dangerous."
Related: Manhunt leaves LAPD officers 'tense'
The county jail in downtown Los Angeles was in lockdown Friday as a precaution after a civilian female employee of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility spotted someone fitting Dorner's description, said Los Angelese County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
U.S. Navy installations throughout California and Nevada were "maintaining a heightened security posture," a U.S. military official told CNN.
"Security personnel are on the lookout" for Dorner, the official said. The measure was ordered overnight by Rear Adm. Dixon Smith, commander of the Navy's southwest region.
The official declined to discuss security procedures, but said the move was made after it became clear that Dorner earlier this week gained access to the Naval Base at Point Loma and stayed in a motel there.
Two sailors reported that he approached them Wednesday and spoke with them for about 10 minutes. The conversation took place at a coastal "riverine" unit in San Diego where Dorner served in 2006. As a Navy reservist, Dorner held security jobs with that unit.
The Navy is not certain whether Dorner still possesses any military identification he might try to use to enter a facility. The official said an investigation is under way to determine what military identification he might have.
Dorner underwent flight training in 2009 at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada before serving in San Diego.
In La Palma, California, about 22 miles southeast of Los Angeles, police searched Friday the home of Dorner's mother, where she and a daughter were cooperating with investigators, said Lt. Bill Whalen of the Irvine Police Department.
Related: Dorner's grudge dates back to 2007
The 270-pound former Navy lieutenant promised to bring "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" to police officers and their families, calling it the "last resort" to clear his name and retaliate at a department that he says mistreated him.
Dorner is wanted in the killings on Sunday of two people in Irvine and in the shooting of three Los Angeles-area police officers Thursday, one of whom died.
One of the victims of the Irvine killings, Monica Quan, was the daughter of the retired police officer who represented Dorner in his efforts to get his job back, police said.
"My opinion of the suspect is unprintable," Riverside police Chief Sergio Diaz said, hours after one of his officers was killed. "The manifesto, I think, speaks for itself (as) evidence of a depraved and abandoned mind and heart."
Related: Timeline of events
Here's what is known so far:
-- Dorner, who worked as an LAPD officer from 2005 to 2008, is accused of killing Quan and her fiance Sunday in Irvine, then shooting two Riverside police officers and an LAPD officer Thursday. Police say he unleashed numerous rounds at the Riverside officers, riddling their car with bullets and killing a 34-year-old officer. The second officer in the car was seriously wounded, and the LAPD officer suffered only minor injuries, police said.
-- In a lengthy letter provided by police, Dorner said he had been unfairly fired by the LAPD after reporting another officer for police brutality. He decried what he called a continuing culture of racism and violence within the department, and called attacks on police and their families "a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name."
-- Leads have taken police from Los Angeles to San Diego to Las Vegas to Big Bear Lake, where police found the charred carcass of Dorner's gray pickup. Police had found no trace of him Friday, the San Bernadino County sheriff said. Trackers lost footprints believed to be Dorner's in a wooded area near the truck.
-- The LAPD and other agencies have gone to extremes to protect officers. Forty teams of officers were guarding people named as targets in Dorner's letter. On Thursday, one of the teams shot at a pickup that resembled Dorner's but turned out to be a Los Angeles Times newspaper delivery vehicle.
-- Despite Dorner's statement in the letter that "when the truth comes out, the killing stops," Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said authorities don't plan to apologize to Dorner or attempt to clear his name. Dorner's firing, Beck said Thursday, had already been "thoroughly reviewed."
-- In Nevada on Thursday, FBI agents searched Dorner's Las Vegas home. The search forced some of Dorner's neighbors out of their homes for several hours, CNN affiliate KLAS reported.
"It's too close to home. It's kind of scary," neighbor Dan Gomez told KLAS.
A message to the media
In addition to posting his manifesto online, Dorner mailed a parcel to AC360 Anchor Anderson Cooper's office at CNN in New York.
The package arrived on February 1 and was opened by Cooper's assistant. Inside was a hand-labeled DVD, accompanied by a yellow Post-it note reading, in part, "I never lied" -- apparently in reference to his 2008 dismissal from the LAPD.
The package also contained a coin wrapped in duct tape. The tape bears the handwritten inscription: "Thanks, but no thanks, Will Bratton." It also had letters that may be read as "IMOA," which could be a commonly used Internet abbreviation for "Imagine a More Open America," or possibly "1 MOA," which means one minute of angle, perhaps implying Dorner was accurate with a firearm.
The coin is a souvenir medallion from former LAPD Chief William Bratton, of a type often given out as keepsakes. This one, though, was shot through with bullet holes: three bullet holes to the center and one that nicked off the top.
The editorial staff of AC360 and CNN management were made aware of the package Thursday. Upon learning of its existence, they alerted Bratton and law enforcement.
Bratton headed the LAPD at the time Dorner was dismissed.
CNN's Michael Pearson, AnneClaire Stapleton, Deborah Feyerick, Sara Weisfeldt, Barbara Starr, Pete Janos, Mallory Simon, Brad Lendon, Deanna Hackney, Greg Botelho and Dana Ford contributed to this report. Paul Vercammen reported from Big Bear Lake and Michael Martinez reported and wrote in Los Angeles.
Ex-cop eludes police, vows 'unconventional warfare'
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: With snow coming, authorities continue to hunt for the suspect near Big Bear Lake
- Police believe former cop Christopher Jordan Dorner shot three officers, killing one
- This was days after he allegedly killed two people, one a retired LAPD officer's daughter
- In an 11-page manifesto, Dorner promises "war" on police and their families
Los Angeles (CNN) -- A former Los Angeles cop with military training vowed war against other men in blue Thursday, leaving one officer dead days after he allegedly killed two other people to begin a wave of retribution for being fired, police said.
The focus of the intensive, expansive manhunt is Christopher Jordan Dorner, a 270-pound former Navy lieutenant who has professed his venom against LAPD officers he claimed ruined his life by forcing him out of his dream job.
Dorner blames one retired officer for bungling his appeal to get his job back in an 11-page manifesto, in which he also complained of mistreatment by the LAPD. In that letter -- provided to CNN by an LAPD source -- he vowed to violently target police officers and their families, whoever and wherever they are.
"I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty," Dorner wrote.
"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours."
Authorities believe he followed through on his threats early Thursday by shooting a Riverside, California, police officer and two others. A day earlier, Irvine police named Dorner a suspect in the double slayings Sunday of a woman -- identified by Los Angeles police as the daughter of a retired LAPD officer -- and her fiance.
"My opinion of the suspect is unprintable," said Riverside police Chief Sergio Diaz, hours after one of his officers was killed. "The manifesto, I think, speaks for itself (as) evidence of a depraved and abandoned mind and heart."
The violence, as well as Dorner's background as a police officer and military trained marksman, left police on edge around Southern California.
In Torrance, LAPD officers guarding one of Dorner's alleged targets mistakenly opened fire on a blue pickup truck that resembled one Dorner was thought to be driving, said Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck.
The gunfire left two people wounded, Beck said. Torrance police also fired on another blue pickup, but no one was injured in that incident, according to a senior law enforcement source.
In downtown Los Angeles, police wearing body armor patrolled outside their own iconic headquarters.
Police have good reason to be fearful, the chief said.
"Of course, he knows what he's doing. We trained him," Beck said. "He was also a member of the armed forces. It is extremely worrisome and scary, especially to the officers involved."
The manhunt for Dorner spanned hundreds of miles and numerous counties. By Thursday afternoon, it was largely centered around Big Bear Lake -- about 100 miles east of Los Angeles -- where authorities found the truck the suspect allegedly used in the Riverside shooting.
KTLA: Manhunt for former cop after officers shot
Police confirmed that the vehicle, which was burnt out when it was found, belonged to Dorner by its vehicle identification number, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.
This discovery spurred more officers to converge on the area to conduct beefed up patrols, staff checkpoints and go to every residence in the mountain community. McMahon acknowledged the fire may have been set as a diversionary tactic, though law enforcement isn't taking any chances. Early Thursday evening, he said that aerial and K9 searches on the ground will "continue as long as we can" -- though snow is coming -- and urged locals to be on alert.
"He could be anywhere at this point, and that's why we're searching door to door," the sheriff said.
1 cop dies in 'cowardly ambush'
It all started Sunday when Dorner allegedly killed two people in Irvine, according to police.
Police identified the victims as Monica Quan and her fiance Keith Lawrence.
Quan, 27, was the daughter of retired Los Angeles police Officer Randal Quan, LAPD Officer Tenesha Dobine told CNN. In his manifesto, Dorner said Quan handled his appeal.
On Tuesday, Dorner checked into the Navy Gateway Inns and Suites on San Diego's large naval base, Cmdr. Brad Fagan said.
Dorner likely had access to the hotel because he'd been honorably discharged from the Navy Reserve, said the Navy spokesman. Having retired February 1 as a lieutenant, Dorner worked with mobile inshore undersea warfare units and provided security on oil platforms in Iraq, according to Pentagon records. He was rated as a rifle marksman and pistol expert.
"He did not physically check out" Wednesday as expected, Fagan told reporters.
Police in San Diego say a man who could have been Dorner tried to hijack a boat there on Wednesday. Someone later found a wallet containing Dorner's identification and an LAPD detective's badge near the San Diego airport, according to police. It was unclear whether the badge was legitimate.
Timeline in manhunt for former L.A. cop
By about 1 a.m. Thursday, the scene had shifted about 100 miles north to Corona, California.
There, a pair of LAPD officers on a protection detail were flagged down by a citizen who reported seeing the suspect's vehicle, LAPD Deputy Chief Jose Perez said.
The officers chased the vehicle and caught up to it on an Interstate 15 off-ramp.
"The officers were fired upon with a shoulder weapon," Perez said, with one of them suffering a "graze wound" to his head. The police returned fire, while the suspect set off once again.
About 20 minutes later, two police officers were in their car at a stop light in Riverside when Dorner allegedly pulled up beside them.
That driver unleashed "multiple rounds" from a rifle at the officers, riddling the cop car with bullets and leaving a 34-year-old officer, who had been on the Riverside force for 11 years, dead, according to Diaz. The other officer, 27, was "seriously wounded but we expect a full recovery," the Riverside police chief said.
KCBS: Riverside officer fatally shot
It was "a cowardly ambush," said Diaz, claiming Dorner has "no connection" to his city.
A good Samaritan picked up one of their police radios and called dispatchers to send help, Riverside police said.
Suspect calls attacks 'a necessary evil'
In addition to posting his manifesto online, Dorner reached out directly to CNN, mailing a parcel to AC360 anchor Anderson Cooper's office at CNN in New York.
The package arrived on February 1 and was opened by Cooper's assistant. Inside was a hand-labeled DVD, accompanied by a yellow Post-it note reading, in part, "I never lied" -- apparently in reference to his 2008 dismissal from the LAPD.
The package also contained a coin wrapped in duct tape. The tape bears the hand-written inscription: "Thanks, but no thanks, Will Bratton." It also had letters that may be read as "IMOA", which could be a commonly used Internet abbreviation for "Imagine a More Open America," or possibly "1 MOA," which means one minute of angle, perhaps implying Dorner was notably accurate with a firearm.
The coin is a souvenir medallion from former LAPD Chief William Bratton, of a type often given out as keepsakes. This one, though, was shot through with bullet holes: three bullet holes to the center and another shot nicked off the top.
The editorial staff of AC360 and CNN management were made aware of the package Thursday. Upon learning of its existence, they alerted Bratton and law enforcement.
Bratton headed the LAPD at the time Dorner was dismissed.
The dispute centers on a 2007 incident in San Pedro involving a man's arrest at a DoubleTree hotel. Two weeks later, Dorner accused his training officer of kicking the man after he'd given up.
The investigators' report said "the delay in reporting the alleged misconduct coupled with the witness' statements irreparably destroy Dorner's credibility." The report cited contradictory accounts from the arrested man and his father and denials by the accused officer and three hotel employees that the arrested man had been kicked. Dorner claims he was wrongly ousted for blowing the whistle on what he insists was police abuse.
Suspect's grudge dates back to 2007 complaint
Dorner challenged his firing for years, losing at every turn. First, the police department's Board of Rights rejected his appeal. Then, in October 2011, a judge ruled against his appeal, according to court records.
Beck, the Los Angeles police chief, said Thursday that Dorner's case had been "thoroughly reviewed" and said the department would not apologize to Dorner or clear his name.
But as his manifesto shows, Dorner is showing no sign of relenting.
He complained he had been railroaded out of the department after reporting police brutality by another officer. Dorner also complained of a continuing culture of racism and brutality in the LAPD.
Attacks on other police officers and their families, he said, are "a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name."
"Look your wives/husbands and surviving children directly in the face and tell them the truth as to why your children are dead," Dorner wrote.
Such a chilling warning prompted Los Angeles police to set up 40 protective details in an effort to safeguard people listed in Dorner's letter, Beck said.
The chief acknowledged that this effort was taxing the department, which has been placed under tactical alert, meaning all officers must stay on duty.
"It's extremely, extremely manpower intensive," Beck said. "But the safety of my employees, people that come on the job to protect the lives of strangers, is extremely important to me. And I will expend whatever resource is necessary."
KABC: Former cop shoots three officers
CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton, Sara Weisfeldt, Barbara Starr, Pete Janos, Mallory Simon and Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.
D.C. shooter planned to smear Chick-fil-A on victims
Labels: Lifestyle
Floyd Lee Corkins was arrested at the shooting scene.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: The president of the FRC accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center of "inciting violence"
- Floyd Corkins, pleads guilty, says he wanted to intimidate those who oppose gay rights
- He faces up to 70 years in prison when sentenced April 29
- Building manager wrestled with Corkins and disarmed him after being shot in August incident
Washington (CNN) -- After years of thinking it over, Floyd Corkins finally had a plan.
He'd bought a gun and learned how to use it. He'd loaded three magazines. And he had stopped by Chick-fil-A to pick up 15 sandwiches, which he planned to smear in the dying faces of staffers he expected to kill at the Family Research Council in Washington.
It would be a statement, he said, "against the people who work in that building," according to documents filed in U.S. District Court, where Corkins pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three charges related to the August shooting at the conservative policy group.
Corkins told Judge Richard Roberts that he hoped to intimidate gay rights opponents.
The shooting came amid intense debate over remarks against gay marriage by an executive with the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A restaurant chain and the company's support for groups considered hostile to gay rights.
The research council, a Christian group that focuses on family, anti-abortion and religious liberty issues and views homosexuality as harmful, backed Chick-fil-A in the ensuing controversy.
"They endorse Chick-fil-A and also Chick-fil-A came out against gay marriage, so I was going to use that as a statement," prosecutors quoted Corkins as telling investigators.
Corkins, 28, pleaded guilty to committing an act of terrorism while armed, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, and assault with intent to kill while armed.
Prosecutors dropped seven other charges.
The charges carry sentences of up to 70 years in prison. However, the sentence could be shorter because Corkins has no prior criminal record.
Corkins will be sentenced April 29, prosecutors said.
The act of terrorism charge alleges that Corkins wanted to kill building manager Leo Johnson and other Family Research Council employees "with the intent to intimidate and coerce a significant portion of the civilian population of the District of Columbia and the United States."
It is a District of Columbia law passed in 2002 but never before used.
According to prosecutors' account of the attack filed on Wednesday, Corkins got into the Family Research Council's building by telling Johnson that he was there to interview for an internship.
After Johnson asked for identification, prosecutors say, Corkins reached into his backpack, retrieved a handgun and leveled it at Johnson's head.
Johnson ducked and lunged at Corkins before he could fire a shot, according to prosecutors.
As the two struggled, Corkins fired three times, hitting Johnson once in the arm, before the building manager was able to wrestle him to the ground, disarm him and hold him at gunpoint until police arrived.
As he lay on the ground, Corkins said something to the effect, "'It's not about you.' It's about the FRC and its policies," according to the prosecution account.
Corkins -- who had chosen the research council as his target after finding it listed as an anti-gay group on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center -- had planned to stride into the building and open fire on the people inside in an effort to kill as many as possible, he told investigators, according to the court documents.
If he'd been successful and escaped, his plan was to go to another conservative group to continue the attack, prosecutors said. A handwritten list naming three other groups he planned to attack was found among his belongings, prosecutors said.
According to the documents, Corkins had thought about such an attack for years but "just never went through with it."
He purchased the gun used in the attack a week before at a Virginia gun store, where a French television crew taped him while doing a story about the widespread availability of guns in America, according to prosecutors.
He also went to the store the day before the attack for two hours of training.
U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said Corkins' guilty plea "makes clear that using violence to terrorize political opponents will not be tolerated."
At the time of the shooting, Corkins lived with his parents in Herndon, Virginia, and volunteered at a Washington center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
In August, FBI investigators said in an affidavit that investigators had interviewed Corkins' parents after the shooting, and they said their son "has strong opinions with respect to those he believes do not treat homosexuals in a fair manner."
The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the Family Research Council as a hate group since 2010, pointing to what it describes as its anti-gay propaganda and legislative agenda.
On his nightly radio show on Wednesday, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins mentioned the plea deal and accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of playing a role in the shooting by inciting hatred and violence rather than fighting it -- a claim he has repeatedly made since the shooting.
"The Southern Poverty Law Center is dangerous. They are inciting hatred, and in this case a clear connection to violence," he said on the radio broadcast. "They need to be held accountable, and they need to be stopped before people are killed because of their reckless labeling and advocacy for homosexuality and their anti-Christian stance."
A spokeswoman for the center declined to comment on the plea deal or the research council's comments, but referred to a statement from the organization last year, standing by its designation of the Family Research Council as a "hate group."
"As people who care about human dignity, we have a moral obligation to call out the FRC for its demonizing lies and incendiary rhetoric about the LGBT community," the statement said. "The fact that we list the FRC as a hate group because of its demonizing propaganda does not make us the hateful one. Spreading demonizing lies is what is dangerous, not exposing them."
Carol Cratty reported from Washington; Michael Pearson wrote from Atlanta; CNN's Paul Courson also contributed to this report.
FBI: Bombs found in kidnapper's bunker
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Well-wishers sign oversized card for Ethan, who turns 6 Wednesday
- Two bombs found in kidnapper's bunker, FBI says
- State police: Ethan released from hospital
- Law enforcement used a secret camera to see inside bunker, source says
Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- Two bombs were discovered Tuesday inside the bunker where an FBI team rescued a 5-year-old boy from his kidnapper, the agency said.
The FBI said they "disrupted" the two explosive devices. One was in the bunker and another was in the PVC pipe that hostage taker Jimmy Lee Dykes sometimes used to communicate with the authorities, Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson said in a written statement.
The agency sent in a hostage rescue team after negotiations broke down with Dykes, who apparently had bombs in the bunker and shot at agents when they stormed the bunker.
The search for other bombs will continue Wednesday, Richardson said.
Dykes had held a 5-year-old named Ethan since abducting him from his school bus.
Ethan's mother said she awoke Tuesday to what she will forever remember as "the most beautiful sight ... my sweet boy."
Alabama bunker standoff
HIDE CAPTION
For almost a week, Ethan, had been held by Dykes until an FBI team rescued him Monday afternoon.
Mother and child were reunited at a hospital.
"I can't describe how incredible it is to hold him again," the mother, who has not been publicly named, said in a written statement. "Ethan is safe and back in my arms, and I owe it all to some of the most compassionate people on Earth."
Ethan was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon, Alabama state trooper Kevin Cook said.
Dozens of people attended a prayer vigil for Ethan on Tuesday night and signed a huge birthday card for the boy, who turns 6 on Wednesday.
Tough negotiations
A law enforcement source told CNN that Dykes was contentious with authorities from the beginning of the nearly weeklong standoff, but the conversations deteriorated rapidly toward the end.
The source said investigators talked with Dykes on the phone, exploring several strategies to resolve the situation, without success.
"The team kept going back to the same place -- that they had to go in and get Ethan," the source said.
They knew the rescue might be difficult.
"Dykes built this bunker specifically for law enforcement not to get in and him to not get out," the source said.
Dykes had reinforced the bunker to prevent others from getting in, Richardson said.
Law enforcement officers were able to see what was going on inside the underground bunker where the child was held hostage with a camera they slipped into the hideout, a law enforcement official said.
FBI sources said surveillance drones constantly monitored the situation.
As the standoff dragged on, an FBI hostage rescue team practiced on a nearby mockup of the bunker until kidnapper Dykes' declining mental state forced them to move in Monday afternoon, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.
The resulting assault -- from the top of the bunker, according to another law enforcement source -- ended with Dykes dead and Ethan free.
The other law enforcement official wouldn't say what exactly was done to get into bunker, but the FBI team didn't go in through the hatch.
Authorities took Ethan to the hospital for evaluation.
"He was running around the hospital room, putting sticky notes on everyone who was in there, eating a turkey sandwich and watching 'Spongebob,' " Dale County Schools Superintendent Ronny Bynum said.
The kidnapping
Authorities said Dykes abducted the young boy from a school bus January 29.
Dykes approached the bus and demanded that the driver hand over two children. Dykes killed driver Charles Poland as he blocked the aisle -- allowing children to escape from the back of the bus -- but Dykes seized Ethan and fled to the bunker, according to authorities.
Late Alabama bus driver called a hero
During the ensuing standoff, authorities were extraordinarily tight-lipped about what was happening, but said they were in contact with Dykes and said they believed he had not harmed the boy. He also allowed authorities to deliver food, medicine and at least one toy for the boy to play with, according to authorities.
The details about the law enforcement response to his abduction are the first provided by authorities about how they knew what was going on inside the bunker and why they decided to move when they did.
But many questions remain, including whether the Defense Department provided sensing equipment to aid in monitoring what was happening inside the bunker and why Dykes acted as he did.
'A big boom'
At one point Monday, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson told reporters that Dykes had "a story that's important to him, although it's very complex."
But according to a law enforcement source, Dykes' mental state deteriorated in the 24 hours before the Monday afternoon rescue.
Experts from FBI units, including a crisis negotiation team, tactical intelligence officers and a behavioral sciences unit, had determined Dykes was in a downward psychological spiral, the source said.
At 3:12 p.m. (4:12 ET) on Monday, the FBI team went in.
While the law enforcement source said FBI agents went in through the top of the bunker, the source declined to say specifically how they breached the roof, how many agents were involved or whether Dykes shot himself or was killed by FBI gunfire.
A Dale County official told CNN that Dykes had been shot multiple times. The body remains "in the area" and will be examined by the county coroner before it is taken to Montgomery, Alabama, for autopsy by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, the official said.
Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director, said the rescue likely was complicated by the layout and materials used to build the underground bunker.
Rescuers would have had to come down stairs, exposing their legs and meaning Dykes would see them first, he said. And if there were brick walls, the FBI agents would have to shoot carefully to guard against ricochets -- all that after probably tossing in a flash grenade to stun the kidnapper.
"The FBI hostage rescue team is the best in the world, and they proved it yesterday," said Fuentes, who was not involved in Monday's rescue.
A law enforcement source would neither confirm nor deny that a flash grenade was used.
What's next for Ethan?
While Ethan recuperated Tuesday from his ordeal, school officials began planning a party to celebrate the boy's birthday and to honor Poland, the bus driver hailed by school officials as a hero.
While the party won't be ready by Ethan's birthday, it will be held soon -- likely at the Dale County High School football stadium, Bynum said.
After being kidnapped, the recovery ahead
Ethan's elementary school principal, Phillip Parker, said teachers are eager to have him back and "wrap their arms around him."
"Everybody knows Ethan. He's a good kid, a friendly kid," Parker said.
Relief that Ethan was safe was palpable in Midland City, but many questions remain about what comes next for him.
How does a 5-year-old heal from this ordeal? How does a youngster go on after witnessing his bus driver shot to death, then being dragged to an underground bunker by a gun-toting stranger? How will he deal with what he experienced the six days he languished in that hole and what he saw during the explosive rescue Monday that killed his captor?
"It's very hard to tell how he's going to do," said Dr. Louis Krause, a psychiatrist at Chicago's Rush Medical Center. "On the one hand, he might get right back to his routine and do absolutely fine. But on the other hand, the anxieties, the trauma, what we call an acute stress disorder, even post-traumatic stress symptoms, can occur."
A psychologist said even if Ethan appears to be doing well on the outside, he needs to talk out what happened to him. Hoping the 5-year-old will forget what happened would be a bad strategy, said Wendy Walsh.
"That's not actually good because when you start to forget, some traumatic events they get stored in your body as feelings that crop up at strange times in your life," she said. "It is better to process it, get some therapy."
When terrible things happen: Helping children heal
Someone who knows all too well what Ethan may go through is Katie Beers, who as a 10-year-old was held underground in a concrete bunker for two weeks by a New York man.
"I am ecstatic that Ethan has been retrieved safe and sound," said Beers, who recently released a book about her abduction. "As for my ordeal, I just keep thinking about the effects of it: being deprived sunlight, nutritious food and human contact. And how much I wanted to have a nutritious meal, see my family."
Beers says she still feels the effects of her kidnapping.
"The major issue that I have is control issues with my kids and finances," she said. "I don't like my kids being out of my sight for more than two seconds. And I think that that might get worse as they get older."
Guiding children through grief and loss
Support crucial for kids after trauma
Victor Blackwell reported from Midland City; Michael Pearson reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Carol Cratty, Vivian Kuo, Rich Phillips, Larry Shaughnessy, Barbara Starr, Lateef Mungin, Steve Almasy and HLN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks also contributed to this report.
Boy safe, suspect dead after Alabama bunker standoff
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Rescued child is in good spirits at hospital, authorities say
- NEW: Officials say crime scene is still active, bomb squad on site
- FBI says boy was rescued after negotiators felt he was in danger
- Witness said he heard explosion followed by gunshots
Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- A 5-year-old boy freed Monday after being held captive in an underground bunker for six days is laughing and smiling and playing with his favorite toy dinosaur after being reunited with his family, authorities said.
The boy's kidnapper is dead, but officials offered no details on the raid that freed the boy -- identified only by his first name, Ethan -- and left his abductor fatally shot.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson visited Ethan at a hospital, where he was in a private area with heavy security.
"He is doing fine," Richardson told reporters at a late-night news conference. "He's laughing, joking, playing, eating."
Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson had no new details about Ethan's rescue, and when asked if the boy saw his abductor, 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, killed during the rescue operation, Olson replied, "He's a very special child. He's been through a lot, he's endured a lot."
Ethan looks great but will be hospitalized overnight, an uncle told people at a prayer vigil earlier Monday.
Authorities said they were still working on the crime scene and the investigation should continue for several more days. The sheriff's office said the bomb squad was checking the bunker for potential explosive devices.
Ethan, the rescued boy, arrives on stretcher Monday at Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Alabama.
Richardson earlier said an FBI team went in to get Ethan after negotiations had broken down with Dykes, who also was "observed holding a gun."
Olson said it became very difficult to deal with and even communicate with Dykes over the past day.
Believing the child to be in imminent danger, an FBI team entered the bunker at 3:12 p.m. CT (4:12 p.m. ET) and rescued the boy, Richardson said.
One neighbor said he was outside when he was startled by the sound of an explosion.
"I heard a big boom and then ... I believe I heard rifle shots," said Bryon Martin, who owns a home near the bunker where the boy had been held since Tuesday.
It was a loud noise that "made me jump off the ground," he said.
Authorities wouldn't say whether the blast was set off as a diversionary tactic or whether Dykes had planted explosives around the bunker.
After the good news of the boy's release spread through the small rural community, travelers on a nearby highway honked their horns as they drove by.
The FBI had borrowed from the U.S. military high-tech detection equipment similar to the technology used to discover homemade bombs in war zones, three Defense Department officials told CNN.
It was unclear whether the equipment, which is not readily available to civilian law enforcement, had been used by the FBI.
One of the defense officials said no members of the military were involved in the rescue. They would have been acting a technical advisers, the official said.
Last Tuesday, police said, Dykes boarded a Dale County school bus and demanded the driver hand over two children.
The driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., refused, blocking access to the bus's narrow aisle as at least 21 children escaped out of the back emergency door, authorities said.
The gunman killed Poland, then grabbed a kindergartner before barricading himself and the boy inside a nearby bunker he had built.
Smith said Monday that Ethan has siblings, but none of them were on the bus last week.
In the ensuing days, officials said little about what was going on in the bunker or in their strategy, or what -- if anything -- Dykes wanted.
"Based on our discussions with Mr. Dykes, he feels like he has a story that's important to him, although it's very complex," Olson said Monday before the hostage situation ended. He didn't elaborate.
Ethan suffers from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit disorder, state Rep. Steve Clouse said during the week.
Dykes told authorities that he had blankets and a heater in the bunker, and authorities have previously said the bunker -- built 4 feet underground -- has electricity.
Authorities did not say how they were communicating with Dykes.
Meanwhile, residents and business owners in Midland City put up blue, red and black ribbons in support of the boy and Poland. Blue and red are the local school colors, and black is in honor of the slain bus driver.
The U.S. Navy confirmed Monday that Dykes served in the military from 1964 to 1969.
Naval records list him as an aviation maintenance administrationman third-class who served with units based in California and Atsugi, Japan. The job entails clerical work related to aircraft and aircraft maintenance, according to the Navy's job description.
Neighbors and officials had described Dykes as a survivalist with "anti-government" views.
Even as the hostage situation continued Monday morning, plenty of police were on hand as schools in neighboring Ozark, Alabama, reopened for the first time since the incident began.
Dale County schools remained closed but were to reopen on Tuesday, the district said.
In Ozark, school officials decided to begin strictly enforcing a 15-foot safety zone around school buses required by state law. The law prohibits any unauthorized adults, including parents, from approaching within 15 feet of a school bus stop. If an unauthorized adult gets too close, bus drivers are supposed to close bus doors or drive away, if necessary, school officials said
CNN's Victor Blackwell and Martin Savidge reported from Midland City; Barbara Starr contributed from Washington; Michael Pearson and Steve Almasy reported and wrote from Atlanta; and CNN's Vivian Kuo and Larry Shaughnessy also contributed to this report.
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