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Subscribe to RSSThe family of the bus driver killed for refusing to hand over children is speaking out for the first time. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
The school bus driver killed this week in an Alabama hostage drama took bullets for the children on his bus just as he would have for his own kids, his son says.
When a child boarded Charles Albert Poland Jr.’s bus, “they were no longer their parents’, they were his,” Aaron Poland told NBC News. “And I know that’s the reason why my dad took those shots. It was for his children, just like he would do for me and my sister.”
Authorities say Jimmy Lee Dykes, a Vietnam veteran and survivalist, boarded Poland's bus on Tuesday and demanded two children. When Poland refused, Dykes shot him, authorities say. They say Dykes took a 5-year-old boy hostage and has been holed up in an underground bunker with him ever since.
Poland, 66, had driven a school bus for Dale County since 2009. Authorities said they found four shell casings at the scene.
"I expected them to say he had a heart attack or got in to a car wreck. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd get shot, and shot four times," Poland's sister, Vicki Upchurch, said Thursday.
Upchurch, who lives in Athol, Idaho, told NBC station KHQ of Spokane, Wash., that Poland family grew up in northern Idaho, where much of the family still lives. Relatives were planning to travel from Idaho to Alabama for his funeral services this weekend.
"We will get through this," Upchurch said. "My brother was very religious. He had a deep faith."
Poland joined the Army in the 1960s and moved to Alabama, where he married and had lived ever since, Upchurch said. She said he retired as a diesel mechanic in 2009 and had been driving a school bus to help support his wife until she was able to retire.
"My brother would have done anything to protect those kids," she said.
Schools Superintendent Donny Bynum said in a statement Wednesday that "Mr. Poland was well-loved by all of us here at Dale County Schools."
Hostage suspect was loner, missed court appearance
Poland's wife, Jan, remembered the man known to friends as "Chuck" as a gentle, caring man in an interview with a local newspaper, The Dothan Eagle.
Dale County Board of Education
Dale County bus driver Charles Poland, 66, was killed Tuesday.
Friends and family gathered Wednesday at the couple's home in Newton, about a 15-minute drive from Midland City, according to the paper.
"He loved them," she said of the friends and family shocked by Poland's violent death. "He loved everybody and he was loved."
Terry Roberts, a firefighter and youth pastor in Newton, told the Eagle that he had known Poland for most of his life.
Those who knew him are in "total shock," Roberts told the paper.
"The kids, everybody's just in total shock," Roberts said. "I've got a young child, so it really hits home."
The Dale County Sheriff's Department offered its condolences to Poland's family in a press release Wednesday.
"It says in the Bible the meek will inherit the Èarth," Poland's brother-in-law Melvin Skipper told the Eagle. "He was the meekest man I knew."
Alabama bunker hostage boy's family is 'holding on by a thread'
While neighbors have described Dykes, 65, as a paranoid survivalist who was always digging in his yard with a shovel, Poland's neighbor Hilburn Benton told the Eagle that the bus driver once helped him complete a major yard project and asked nothing in return.
"He told me, 'You're my friend and you're my neighbor. I'm not charging you a dime,'" Benton told the paper.
Schools in Dale County and in neighboring Ozark city were to remain closed for the rest of the week, according to a release Wednesday from the Dale County Board of Education.
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"he was a good Christian man" thankfully, now he is with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Rest with the Lord, Charles Albert Poland.
Ya know...This DELUSIONAL and PSYCHOTIC belief in an invisible, extraterrestrial man in the sky is part of the MENTAL ILLNESS problem...
Jill - just because you are a non-believer doesn't mean you have to knock those of us that are. I take it you are an atheist, that's your decision. No one is riding you about it so back off.
Paratrooper: I side with you 1,000%.
The reality of it is its not getting any better, but this gentleman's like this will always step forward an surrenda their life unconscionable without thinking of the consequences.. to protect others,
God bless him and his family.
Mr. Poland is a true hero for standing in the face of death and sacraficing his own life to save the children. This tragedy could have gone multiple ways and it's unfortunate it went the way it did. However, in a situation like this, how is one supposed to defend themselves and others when a loaded gun is pointed at them?
Sad story. This man is a true Hero. I hope it ends well for the child.
It'll be good if someone kills the abductor. He doesn't need to be arrested.
He'll come out, hands up, whining like a puppy and then sue the police for scaring him with drawn guns.
Mr. Poland is a true hero for standing in the face of death and sacraficing his own life to save the children. This tragedy could have gone multiple ways and it's unfortunate it went the way it did. However, in a situation like this, how is one supposed to defend themselves and others when a loaded gun is pointed at them?
Maybe I haven't seen it yet, but I'm wondering why the NRA pro-gun folks, haven't been on here advocated arming all the school bus drivers.
Remember what your boy Wayne LaPierre said: "the only one who can stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun"
Mr. Poland, RIP, you are a hero for trying!
Thank you Charles from a parent who loves his little girl...
@Michelle Tafoya, Well said, that is the only thing that matters at this point. Condolences to the Poland family. Here's to the safe return of the child to his family.
I wonder what will happen if somebody pops a cap into LaPierre just because he's gay. Would that go to motive? In Texas it might be considered justifiable.
Is there an address where we can donate to his family for the funeral? I don't have a lot but perhaps it would help.
Protector of children, No greater display of honor and heroism!
Agreed that if he had stopped this crime, he would be attacked as a vigilante, pretty sad you have to die doing nothing to stop anything. to be a hero. Good job liberal whackos.
His blood is on the hands of all who would deny a man the right to defend himself and others against evil doers.
I'm still looking for the indignation of the nation toward our "criminal justice" system. How can a guy beat a little dog to death with a lead pipe, brandish a fire arm and discharge it in public, dig a bunker in his front yard, get arrested, and then sent home with his gun and told to appear in court to face his accuers?
Where is the media outcry on that?The most obvious question I have, especially considering all of the hype in the last month or so about gun violence, why wasnt that guy held, at least until a competency hearing could be performed.
For that matter, news reporters seem to be all over this little town in Al. trying to dig up dirt on the child or the killer, but there is not one report to update us on the little girl killed in Chicago.......Why is there no media coverage condeming Chicago police for not making any head way on that?
We cant just keep up the gun argument, it needs to shift to some real solutions to violence in our society.
In the bible we are told that the people that kill,rape or hurt children need to be sent to God. Again if we would only follow HIS rules instead of our own...This would be a whole lot better place to be!!
“Having movie theaters and schools full of kids
periodically shot up is just a price we should be willing to pay if it means I
get to play with guns and pretend I'm Wyatt Earp.
This is the truth that lies beneath all the NRA arguments.
All that we suffer because of the proliferation of guns—these horrifying
tragedies, the 30,000 Americans who are killed every year with guns—for gun
advocates, it's unfortunate, but it's a price they're willing to pay. If only
they'd have the guts to say it.”
So you like statistics? Look up the number of violent offenders who have been arrested and sent home on a promise to appear in court, who end up killing their accuser, or some one else before the court date happens. That has nothing to do with the NRA, it has to do with the liberal criminal justice system which places the accused rights over the victims rights
Im surprised at the fact that what type of weapon was used was not described. This is a tragic event and the man deserves all our respect. Also i'm surprised that this seems like an incident not involving a semi automatic weapon. This affirms to me that what type of weapon is used is not the issue... it is about reaching out to those with mental disorders and working at the root of the problem.
Say it plainly, there are those who cant put 2 and 2 together. That man, after killing a little dog and shooting at neighbors should havebeen arrested as a terrorist and had guns confiscated and undergone a competency hearing.
If it was in Afghanistan or somewhere else in the Middle East they would just blow the whole scene to smithereens with a drone and 'express regret for any necessary incidental casualties'.
Thats right, avoid the real issue with more anti american hate speech
Sounded more like anti-Middle east speech to me, but that doesn't take away the point you made...
Mickey 1983943 I have a relative in prison doing 20 years (actual) no chance of parole and this person has better medical care than most people in this country. routine tests are done and a spot was found which was followed up with more mri s and ultra sounds faster than you or I could get in, whats more we struggle with co-pays and other out of pocket costs, but if you are incarcerated it 's free no wait.....were paying for it!!!!!!
What I cannot get is what is the proper response that will fix this problem:
1) Do we take the guns out? - No because though I am not a gun owner, many are living freely without fear because they have confidence they can protect themself.
2) Do we will kill the perpetrators? - I respect death penalty and see it fit for many cases like the Cheshire,CT home invasion. But in this case this is an insane guy. Are we a society which kills it's insane senior citizens.
Whenever there is a heart wrenching event we humans seek a solution to fix it. But it is instances like these I think have no solution, Even more saddening is there is some lawyer waiting to make fame on this case.
God continue to be with that poor little boy, I hope no harm comes to him. Mr. Poland deserves all the praise, thoughts and prayers he is a true hero to give his life to save others. My thoughts and prayers go to the Poland family let them be an inspiration to others, what a joy it must of been to be in his presence. We should all have a
Mr. Poland in our lives.(My father is mine) Rest in Peace as I know he will.
Do you people really think God should be taken out of schools ? Pledge alliegence too our Flag and Prayers ? Where are all these morons coming from? Is someone paying them too do this CRAP ? ?
sure makes you wonder! and you are so right, how can you ask God how he lets this happen when you dont allow God in the schools...where ever there is no God it leaves room for one thing..evil..
People are about to hate me....a few things stood out when i was reading this...the first is that he is a anti-american survivalist...wasnt everyone saying Nancy Lanza was a prepper and making a big deal about her guns? Obviously if this guy had a bunker something was going on but I just think its a little strange that anyone who questions the government lately is being made to look like a nutjob like this guy obviously is and more and more stories are coming out about preppers or survivalist. For instance...nancy lanza, remember the guy who killed his kids and took off he had a bunker or somethign I can not remember much but there was a story months back on it, or how about the sandy hook truthers they are making look like idiots and nutjobs when really they are just merely asking questions and wandering why they are not being answered. mark my words more and more stories are going to come out blaming survivalist mindset and questioning the government when i dont think that will be the cause. The reason is to make anyone who thinks with there own minds seem dangerous and insaen, because if you havent heard patriots and free speakers are the new terrorist. the second thing that stood out is the family lives in Newton, kinda close to Newtown right? third things is someone mentioned autism.......more and more stories have somethign to do with autism as well, but then again it is much more common 1 in 88 children have it where as it used to be extremely rare...why? vaccines, fluoride, gmos, i could go on...
Why can't they rescue that poor little boy...Story does'nt say..any update?
wantsthetruthgrandma,
Last I heard they were still negotiating for the little boy's release. I guess they can't press too hard for fear he may kill the boy. I hope the story has a good ending for this little boy, but one thing is for certain, i.e. it is not going to have a happy ending for his abductor.