A gunman who held firefighters hostage outside Atlanta and was killed after an hours-long standoff was lying in bed when the emergency crew arrived and fooled them into thinking he was sick before.

He "seemed to be suffering from a condition that restricted his movement," Gwinnett County Police Chief Charles Walters said in a Thursday news briefing.

Gwinnett County Police Department / AP

An undated photo from Gwinnett County police shows Lauren Holman Brown, 55, the gunman accused of holding four firefighters hostage for hours in his suburban Atlanta home.

But when the firefighters began to assist him, the man pulled a handgun, held five firefighters at gunpoint and demanded help to get his power, cable television and phone service restored.

Lauren Holman Brown, 55, was identified at the suspect killed when a SWAT team stormed his home, NBC station WXIA reported.

Though new details on the Wednesday afternoon hostage incident in Suwanee, Ga., were emerging, the motive for the crime remained unclear.

Here's how the incident 35 miles outside Atlanta unfolded, according to police and WXIA reports:

The four-hour drama began at 3:41 p.m. when dispatchers received a 911 emergency call from Brown, who complained of chest pains. When firefighters arrived, Brown was lying in bed, but minutes later produced a handgun and took five firemen hostage.

Brown then demanded one of the firefighters move a fire truck and ambulance parked outside his home. He released one of the firefighters.

Brown then ordered the firefighters to have his utilities restored to the home. Police negotiators began making contact with Brown and tried to get him to release the hostages. He refused.

As the standoff wore on, Brown requested rope and tape to tie up the firefighters, and ordered that food be delivered for him and the hostages. He also set a deadline for 7:30 p.m. when he wanted his demands met.

SWAT team members arrived at the home at 7:30 p.m. under the guise that they were bringing take-out from Brown’s choice of restaurants: Captain D’s Seafood Kitchen.

A flash-bang grenade was then detonated to disorient the suspect. Brown fired at the first police officer to enter the room, who was wounded in the arm. The officer, who has not been named, returned fire and killed Brown.

The police officer sustained non-life-threatening wounds and remained hospitalized on Thursday. Four of the firefighters received minor injuries from the explosive device used to distract Brown.

According to police, the SWAT operation was initiated because officers did not believe Brown would release the hostages. Police later found six guns inside Brown's home.

The names of the firefighters were not released.

Cpl. Jake Smith, a Gwinnett County Police spokesman, said the investigation is ongoing and a precise motive was unclear. One item of inquiry is Brown’s mental health history.

Brown was known to be struggling with financial issues but police were still determining what those were. Police had visited Brown's home several times, Walters said, but nothing "never for anything really criminal." One visit was for a "failure to appear" charge in another county.

According to property tax records obtained by NBC station WXIA the property had been foreclosed on last November. Brown had lived in the home more than a decade and his ex-wife lived across the street, Walters said.

Police said Brown said he had been planning the incident for several weeks.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:49 PM EDT

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. -- As an Alabama standoff and hostage drama marked a sixth day Sunday, more details emerged about the suspect at the center, with neighbors and officials painting a picture of an isolated man estranged from his family.

Authorities say Jim Lee Dykes, 65 — a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War known as Jimmy to neighbors — gunned down a school bus driver and abducted a 5-year-old boy from the bus, taking him to an underground bunker on his rural property. The driver, 66-year-old Charles Albert Poland Jr., was to be buried Sunday.

Dykes, described as a loner who railed against the government, lives up a dirt road outside this tiny hamlet north of Dothan in the southeast corner of the state. His home is just off the main road north to the state capital of Montgomery, about 80 miles away.

The FBI said in a statement Sunday that authorities continue to have an open line of communication with Dykes and that they planned to deliver to the bunker additional comfort items such as food, toys and medicine. Officials also said Dykes was making the child as comfortable as possible.

Dykes grew up in the Dothan area. Mel Adams, a Midland City Council member who owns the lot where reporters are gathered, said he has known Dykes since they were ages 3 and 4.

He said Dykes has a sister and a brother, but that he is estranged from his family.

Adams said he didn't know what caused the falling-out, but that he knew Dykes "had told part of his family to go to hell."

Midland City Mayor Virgil Skipper said Dykes' sister is in a nursing home. Adams said that law enforcement officers have talked to Dykes' family members and advised them not to speak with reporters, and that officers told his sister there was nothing she could do to help the child in the bunker.

Government records and interviews with neighbors indicate that Dykes joined the Navy in Midland City, serving on active duty from 1964 to 1969. His record shows several awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. During his service, Dykes was trained in aviation maintenance.

Adams said that he, too, is a Vietnam veteran but that he never was close with Dykes. Adams said he recalls last seeing Dykes in the 1980s, when he drove a truck for a company that laundered uniforms.

At some point after his time in the Navy, Dykes lived in Florida, where he worked as a surveyor and a long-haul truck driver. It's unclear how long he stayed there.

He had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanor was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbors, Michael Creel and his father, Greg.

Neighbors described Dykes as a man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property, and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm. Michael Creel said Dykes had an adult daughter, but the two lost touch years ago.

His property has a white trailer that, according to Creel, Dykes said he bought from FEMA after it was used to house evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. The property also has a steel shipping container — like those on container ships — in which Dykes stores tools and supplies.

Next to the container is the underground bunker where authorities say Dykes is holed up with the 5-year-old. Neighbors say the bunker has a pipe so Dykes could hear people coming near his driveway. Authorities have been using the ventilation pipe to communicate with him.

The younger Creel, who said he helped Dykes with supplies to build the bunker and has been in it twice, said Dykes wanted protection from hurricanes.

"He said he lived in Florida and had hurricanes hit. He wanted someplace he could go down in and be safe," Creel said. Authorities say the bunker is about 6 feet by 8 feet, and the only entrance is a trap door at the top.

Such bunkers are not uncommon in rural Alabama because of the threat of tornadoes.

Greg Creel was a friend of Dykes', but he said he would not comment for The Associated Press. "I will only talk to the police and the FBI," he said.

Michael Creel said Dykes kept to himself and listened to a lot of conservative talk radio.

"He was very into what's going on with the nation and the politics and all the laws being made. The things he didn't agree with, he would ventilate," he said.

James Arrington, police chief of the neighboring town of Pinckard, put it differently.

"He's against the government, starting with Obama on down," he said.

Morris Dees of Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, a group that tracks hate crimes, said Dykes was not on the group's radar.

Although the fatal shootings in December at a school in Newtown, Conn., are still on everyone's mind, Dees said he doesn't think Dykes was trying to be a copycat.

"Probably not. He had a whole bus load full of kids, and he could have walked up there and shot the whole crowd of them," he said.

"I think he's just a really angry and bitter guy with some anger management issues," Dees said. "He is just against everything - the government and his neighbors."

Associated Press writers Tamara Lush, Jay Reeves and Philip Rawls contributed to this report.

A young Alabama boy entered his fifth day Saturday in a bunker with the man accused of snatching him off a school bus.

Police said Saturday that the boy, aged 5, has toys, coloring books, and medication in the underground bunker where he is being held by Jimmy Lee Dykes, the Associated Press reported.

The boy has Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a state representative said earlier this week.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said that Dykes, 65, told police he has an electric heater and blankets in the underground bunker on his property in Midland City, Ala. Olson would not say whether Dykes has made any demands, according to the AP.

“I want to thank him for taking care of our child,” Olson said. “That’s very important.”

While little has changed in the standoff since Tuesday afternoon and authorities are keeping tight-lipped, former FBI hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt said on the TODAY show that patience may pay off.

First picture emerges of man believed to have taken 5-year-old hostage in Alabama

“85 percent or more of standoff situations like this end nonviolently,” Van Zandt said on Saturday. Police have said that they are communicating with Dykes in the bunker through a PVC ventilation pipe.

“The reality is he hasn’t been hurt,” Van Zandt said of the young hostage. “Law enforcement doesn’t want to do anything precipitously that could cause anybody to be hurt at this time when the talking cure will likely work in this situation.”

A police source confirms to NBC News that this is the suspect, Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65.

Dykes’ neighbor Michael Creel told the AP that the man, who has been described as a paranoid Navy veteran, showed off the ventilation pipe after installing it about a year ago.

“He was bragging about it,” Creel told the AP. “He said, ‘Come check it out.’”

The first picture of Dykes emerged Friday. The man served just over four years in the Navy, a U.S. military official confirmed on Friday, and received several awards including a good conduct medal.

Meanwhile, the Dale County community mourned school bus driver Charles Albert Poland, Jr., 66, this weekend. Police say Poland was shot and killed while trying to stop the child from being taken off his bus on Tuesday.

Son says bus driver in Alabama hostage crisis gave life for ‘his children’

Aaron Poland, the son of the slain bus driver, told TODAY that his dad died a hero.

“Every time a child got on my dad’s bus, they were no longer their parents’, they were his. He considered them his children,” Poland said, his voice quavering with emotion. “I know that’s the reason why my dad took those shots, for his children, just like he would do for me and my sister.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A police source confirms to NBC News that this is the suspect in an Alabama hostage-taking, Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65.

The first picture emerged Friday of the Alabama man who authorities say has held a 5-year-old boy in an underground bunker for more than three days after snatching him off a school bus.

A police source confirmed to NBC News that the photo is of Jimmy Lee Dykes, who authorities say took the boy after shooting and killing the bus driver Tuesday afternoon in the small town of Midland City.

Dykes, 65, described by authorities and neighbors as a Vietnam veteran and survivalist with deep mistrust of the government, has communicated with hostage negotiators through a long PVC pipe.

The boy has Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a state representative said Thursday. Authorities have gotten medicine to the boy through the pipe, plus crayons and coloring books.

Bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was shot and killed while trying to stop the abduction. His children told NBC News that he thought of the children on the bus as his own, and took bullets for them as he might have for his son or daughter.

"Every time a child got on my dad's bus, they were no longer (with) their parents,' they were his," son Aaron Poland said in an interview that aired Friday on TODAY.

Police towed the bus away from the scene Friday after processing it for evidence.

The two men had a brief encounter a day before the siege, a neighbor said. Kelly Miller, who lives next door to Dykes, told NBC affiliate WSFA that Dykes boarded Poland’s bus Monday and spoke with him. She did not know what was said.

Then, on Tuesday morning, before the abduction, Poland gave Dykes a gift of eggs and marmalade to thank him for clearing off the driveway where the bus had to turn around, according to Miller.

Miller, whose sons Jessie and Jackson were able to leave the bus before the shooting, told the station that Dykes called her father to the property fence shortly afterward and gave him Poland’s gifts, saying: "Here. I don't want this."

Hours later, Miller heard shots and screams.

"Within seconds of me grasping what was going on, I knew it was Jim," she told WSFA.

Published reports have quoted neighbors as saying Dykes has spent as long as eight days at a time in the bunker.

A U.S. military official confirmed Friday that Dykes served a little more than four years in the Navy before being discharged in January 1969. He received several awards, including a medal for good conduct.

Neighbors have described him as a paranoid menace who killed at least one neighborhood pet and threatened children on his property. On the day of the school bus siege, he was due in court over allegedly shooting at a neighbor’s truck. Police have not said if they believe the planned court appearance was connected to the hostage situation.

RELATED: Son says bus driver in Alabama hostage crisis gave life for 'his children'

An Alabama boy spent his fourth day of captivity in an underground bunker Friday with a survivalist who allegedly killed a school bus driver, but the 5-year-old has received medicine he needs, plus crayons and coloring books.

Hostage negotiators have been talking to the boy's captor through a lengthy PVC pipe, but there was no sign of progress. Police told Alabama media Thursday that the man has been known to stay in the bunker as long as eight days.

The boy, a 5-year-old named Ethan known to his mother as "Love Bug," was apparently unharmed, authorities said Thursday.

His family, which has not spoken publicly since the abduction, was "holding on by a thread," a state representative told the TODAY show. "We are all just hoping this can come to a safe end," Rep. Steve Clouse said.

Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, a Vietnam veteran described by authorities as a loner with anti-government leanings -- and by neighbors as a paranoid menace -- is suspected of taking the boy after storming a school bus Tuesday afternoon. Bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was shot and killed while trying to stop the abduction.

Strangely, the two men had a brief encounter just a day before the siege, a neighbor said.

Kelly Miller, who lives next door to Dykes, told NBC affiliate WSFA that Dykes boarded Poland’s bus Monday and spoke with him. She did not know what was said.

Then on Tuesday morning, before the abduction, Poland gave Dykes a gift of eggs and marmalade to thank him for clearing off the driveway where the bus had to turn around, according to Miller.

Miller, whose sons Jessie and Jackson were able to leave the bus before the shooting, told the station that Dykes called her father to the property fence shortly afterward and gave him Poland’s gifts, saying: "Here. I don't want this."

Hours later, Miller heard shots and screams.

"Within seconds of me grasping what was going on, I knew it was Jim," she told WSFA.

A source close to the investigation said the bunker, which is on Dykes' property and was described by a neighbor as 4 feet long, 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep, was equipped with power, food, television and plenty of supplies. The source said negotiators had gotten medicine, crayons and coloring books to the boy.

Late Thursday, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said negotiations through the pipe were continuing.

Clouse told reporters that the boy suffered from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but had been able to get his medicine while held captive.

People in the small Alabama town of Midland City, not far from the Florida line, expressed hope that prayer might help. For the negotiators it is a matter of waiting, said Clint Van Zandt, a former chief hostage negotiator for the FBI.

"He doesn't want to hurt the child. He didn't take the child to hurt him," said Van Zandt, an analyst for MSNBC. "The child is simply the means to keep law enforcement from crashing into his bunker right now."

He added: "Time is on the side of the negotiator."

It could still be a long wait. James Arrington, police chief of the nearby town of Pinckard, told The Birmingham News that Dykes has been known to stay in his bunker as long as eight days.

The source told NBC News that the man believed to be Dykes walked onto the bus on Tuesday with a note, demanding that two children be handed over to him. The bus driver refused and was shot and killed.

Clouse said the kidnapping appeared to be random.

Neighbors in Midland City have said they saw Dykes tirelessly digging and working on the bunker. One man said it was protected by several feet of sand on top.

Poland has been hailed as a hero. The county school system said 21 children made it off the bus alive.

The driver's son, Aaron Poland, told NBC News that his father took bullets for the children on his bus as he would have for his own children.

"Every time a child got on my dad's bus, they were no longer their parents', they were his," he said.

Poland's sister, Vicki Upchurch, told NBC station KHQ in Spokane, Wash., that the driver "would have done anything to protect those kids."

Poland and his family grew up in northern Idaho, where much of the family still lives, Upchurch said. 

Relatives were planning to travel from Idaho to Alabama for Poland's funeral services this weekend. 

"We will get through this," Upchurch said. "My brother was very religious. He had a deep faith."

M. Alex Johnson, Ian Johnston, Matthew DeLuca, Gabe Gutierrez, Isolde Raftery and Alastair Jamieson of NBC News contributed to this report.

RELATED: Son says bus driver in Alabama hostage crisis gave life for 'his children'

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.

The family of an Alabama boy abducted from his school bus and being held in an underground bunker is "holding on by a thread," a state representative said Thursday as the hostage drama stretched into a third day.

The boy, a 5-year-old named Ethan, is receiving necessary medication and appears to be calm and doing well, a state senator said.

A source close to the investigation told NBC News on Thursday that authorities had also managed to get crayons and coloring books to the boy.

The child was kidnapped Tuesday after school when a man stormed the bus and presented a note demanding that two children be handed over to him, the source said. When the driver refused, the man shot and killed him and grabbed the boy, authorities said. Twenty-one other children on the bus were able to escape.

On Wednesday, a source close to the investigation identified the suspected gunman to NBC News as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, of Midland City, describing him as a loner and a survivalist who "does not trust the government" and holds "anti-American views."

Hostage negotiators were still talking to the man in his bunker through a PVC pipe, but after a second night ended with no sign of progress in negotiations, Alabama state Rep. Steve Clouse told the TODAY show: "We are all just hoping this can come to a safe end."

He said the boy's family was "holding on by a thread."

The Dothan Eagle quoted a neighbor, Michael Creel, as describing the bunker as a "homemade bomb shelter," roughly 4 feet wide, 6 feet long and 8 feet deep and covered by several feet of sand. James Arrington, police chief in neighboring  Pinckard, where the bus was assaulted, told reporters Thursday that Dykes had been known to stay in it for as long as eight days.

Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith told TODAY that negotiators had delivered medication that the boy needed, provided by his mother, and that he was believed to be calm and doing well. His mother has "taken comfort in that," she said.

In the remote town of Midland City, just north of the Alabama-Florida state line, people prayed for the boy's safe release.

"Right now, the whole town seems like they're just in a mourning stage," convenience store manager Carl McKenzie told NBC station WSFA of Montgomery. "I would go take that child's place if I could, just to get him out of danger."

Bus driver praised
Authorities offered no hints to the gunman's motive. Clouse said the kidnapping appeared random.

Read more: Hostage suspect was loner, missed court appearance

The gunman burst onto the yellow school bus about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. When the driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, tried to stop him from taking children off the bus, he was shot and killed. The source close to the investigation told NBC News that four spent bullets were found at the scene.

Read more: Slain bus driver remembered as hero

The county school system said 21 students had made it off the bus safely and praised Poland as a fallen hero. But the gunman made off with the one child, possibly because the boy fainted during the siege, according to WSFA.

Clouse said gratitude was being expressed for Poland's actions, telling TODAY: "He started the day as a bus driver and ended it a hero."

Linda Williams, a county tax clerk whose cousin was married to Poland, described him to NBC News as "a good Christian man" who was active in church.

"It says in the Bible the meek will inherit the Earth," brother-in-law Melvin Skipper told the Eagle. "He was the meekest man I knew."

Poland's neighbor Hilburn Benton told the newspaper that Poland refused to accept payment for work on his yard two years ago. "He told me, "You're my friend and you're my neighbor. I'm not charging you a dime,'" Benton recalled.

Suspect faced previous charges
Dykes had been due in court Wednesday morning to face a misdemeanor charge of menacing James E. Davis Jr., a neighbor who accused him of firing a pistol at his truck Dec. 10. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that the dispute was over a makeshift speed bump.

Dale County Board of Education

Charles Albert Poland Jr., who had driven a school bus for Dale County, Ala., since 2009, was shot and killed.

Rhonda Wilbur told WSFA that Dykes was a longtime source of concern in the neighborhood because "he has been like a time bomb waiting for him to go off." Wilbur told reporters that Dykes had beaten her dog to death with a lead pipe.

In addition to the county sheriff's department, the FBI and a SWAT team were on the scene. A woman answering the phone at the Midland City Police Department said the FBI had taken over and that local police were no longer involved. Authorities ordered people living nearby to leave during the standoff.

Schools in Dale County and the nearby city of Ozark were closed for the rest of the week. Dale County schools said counselors would be available to help students, including those who were on the bus.

M. Alex Johnson, Gabe Gutierrez, Isolde Raftery and Alastair Jamieson of NBC News contributed to this report.

The Dothan Eagle via AP

A man boarded this stopped school bus in the town of Midland City, Ala., on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let a child off the bus. The bus driver died.