Surrender Ends Texas Day-Care Hostage Crisis

PLANO, Texas —  A gunman who took dozens of children and several adults hostage at a day-care center released his last two captives--his son and stepson--Thursday night, then surrendered, ending the 30-hour siege.

No one was hurt.

James Monroe Lipscomb Jr., 33, gave up shortly after 9 p.m. CST, Police Chief Bruce Glasscock said. There were no terms of surrender, he added.

“He was tired,” the chief said. “The children were getting tired, and I think he started thinking about the welfare of the children.”

Lipscomb surrendered after freeing his 5-year-old son, James Lipscomb III, and 7-year-old stepson, Xavier Jones.

Earlier Thursday, Lipscomb released his last adult captive and a little girl from the Rigsbee Child Development Center.

Televised images of the 2-year-old girl, clutching a teddy bear and with her arm around the neck of a woman who was carrying her, angered Lipscomb and he cut off talks with police for two hours.

By noon, though, telephone contact had resumed. The girl was identified by relatives as his goddaughter.

“The suspect saw the exchange of the hostage to the relative, and as such we have had a setback in the negotiations,” Glasscock said Thursday morning.

He refused to elaborate on what disturbed the gunman.

By nightfall, Glasscock reported that negotiations were back on track.

On Thursday night, authorities said 78 children and five adults were in the day-care center at one point but that an undetermined number of children and adults escaped as the standoff began. Lipscomb then gradually released the rest until just his son and stepson remained.

His brother, nephew and a neighbor identified him as the husband of day-care center worker Kris Lipscomb, who apparently was in the first group to escape the center.

Kris Lipscomb’s sister, Joan Shaw, said the couple’s three-year marriage has been stormy. “I don’t know what snapped. They had marital problems, but everybody has,” Shaw said.

Attorney Ron Danforth, who says he has represented various members of the family for four years, confirmed that Kris Lipscomb had filed for divorce.

Police said James Lipscomb had tried to rob someone outside the nearby Plano Bank & Trust on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before he stormed the day-care center in this suburb north of Dallas.