The mother of an Alabama boy held for days in an underground bunker said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that she forgave her son's captor early in the standoff and asked authorities not to harm him. 
 
 In this photo provided by the Governor's office, six-year-old Ethan Gilman plays under the table during a visit to the Governor's Office in Montgomery, Ala. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2012. Ethan was held... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo provided by the Governor's office, Gov. Robert Bentley, left, draws with 6-year-old Ethan Gilman during a visit to the Governor's Office in Montgomery, Ala. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2012.... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo provided by the Governor's office, from right to left, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and First Lady Dianne Bentley watch as Ethan Gilman shows his mother, Jennifer Kirkland, a toy mouse Bentley... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jennifer Kirkland's son, Ethan Gilman, was a captive for six days in rural Midland City, Ala., before FBI agents entered the bunker and killed 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes. 
 
 Dykes "took care of Ethan to the best of his abilities" by cooking chicken for the boy and asking hostage negotiators to bring the child his favorite toy car, his mother told Dr. Phil McGraw in an interview for the "Dr. Phil Show." 
 
 "From the very beginning I had already forgiven Mr. Dykes, even though he still had my child," Kirkland said. "...I asked that he not be hurt. But if it came down to it, you know, of course I want my child safe." 
 
 Authorities returned Ethan unharmed after a gunbattle in which Dykes, according to a coroner, was shot multiple times. Kirkland said her son, who turned 6 just two days after the rescue, told her that he witnessed the shooting. 
 
 Members of the rescue team used stun grenades to disorient Dykes, who had a gun and had become agitated with negotiators, before rushing into the bunker, she said. 
 
 "They went in and covered Ethan with a vest and they shot Mr. Dykes," Kirkland said. 
 
 Ethan saw the agents kill his captor, his mother said, just as days earlier he had witnessed Dykes storm onto his school bus and fatally shoot the driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr. 
 
 Poland and Ethan had become close, Kirkland said, as the driver had helped the boy work up the courage to get off the bus by himself. 
 
 "Ethan has always been scared of coming down the bus steps," Kirkland said. "And Mr. Poland would always cheer him on, you know, `Come on, little buddy, you can do it.'" 
 
 Ethan typically sat right behind Poland on the school bus, where the driver could keep an eye on him, Kirkland said. 
 
 That's where the boy was sitting the day police say Dykes came aboard the bus armed with a gun and demanding two hostages. Authorities say Poland was shot trying to stand between Dykes and the children. 
 
 "The reason I think Ethan was taken off the bus is because when he saw Mr. Poland shot, Ethan passed out," Kirkland said. "Mr. Dykes went down to catch him and he picked him up. And I think, in his own way, he was trying to care for him." 
 
 After the shooting, authorities say, Dykes fled to the bunker with the child as the standoff opened. ||||| MIDLAND CITY, Alabama -- Ethan, the 6-year-old held hostage in an underground bunker for seven days, whispered to his mother, “My bus driver is dead” in an interview with Dr. Phil, which aired today. 
 
 His mother, Jennifer Kirkland, nodded her head not knowing what to say. 
 
 Kirkland and Ethan’s interview with Dr. Phil McGraw took place just four days after Ethan was freed from the underground bunker and his captor, Jimmy Lee Dykes, shot. 
 
 Kirkland told Dr. Phil that she hadn’t discussed the ordeal with her son. She said she didn’t know how to talk to her son since she had never been through that situation. 
 
 Kirkland said Ethan did see his bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., and his captor shot and killed. 
 
 Dr. Phil advised Kirkland that she shouldn’t ask Ethan to recount the details of what happened in the bunker. 
 
 He said let the details of what happened “decay in his young mind.” 
 
 “If he needs to cry, cry with him,” Dr. Phil said. “It is OK to cry.” 
 
 Dr. Phil told Kirkland to reassure her son and let him know that he is OK now, and that he was missed when he was gone. 
 
 Kirkland described the day Ethan was taken. 
 
 She said Ethan usually returned home on the school bus between 3:45 and 4 p.m. 
 
 On Jan. 29, the day Ethan was snatched off his school bus, Kirkland said she started pacing in her front yard when his school bus had not arrived by 4:15 p.m. 
 
 She said a neighbor walked out and said the bus driver had been shot. 
 
 A short time later, a police car pulled up in front of her home and a deputy and Ethan’s principal Phillip Parker got out and told Kirkland to come with them. 
 
 “At that point I didn’t know what it is but I knew it involved Ethan,” Kirkland said to Dr. Phil. “I was scared that maybe one of the shots may have missed Mr. Poland and had hit Ethan.” 
 
 Kirkland was taken to a police department and told that Ethan was believed to be safe but he was being held hostage. 
 
 “I honestly can’t describe it,” she said of the feeling of having her son taken away.” No one can express how you feel. He is my baby. He is my world - my everything. Everything I do I do for him. I was afraid I wouldn’t get him back.” 
 
 Kirkland said she couldn’t help but think that Dykes had shot and killed Poland so what reason did Dykes have to free her son. 
 
 Kirkland said she thinks her son made it through the ordeal by adapting. 
 
 “Ethan is a loving, forgiving child," she said. He is likely to go up to a perfect stranger and ask for a hug. 
 
 She thinks Ethan was taken by Dykes because he fainted. And, Dykes took care of him because he felt sorry for him due to his bipolar disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD, which required him to take medication. 
 
 Kirkland said Dykes even cooked fried chicken for her son. 
 
 By the last day, Kirkland said she couldn’t get comfortable in her own skin. 
 
 “I was beginning to doubt that I would get Ethan back,” she said. 
 
 Kirkland had been told that Dykes had enough water and food in his bunker to last for months. She told Dr. Phil that there was no way she could have made it that long. 
 
 She wanted to speak to Dykes, but wasn’t allowed to. Law enforcement didn’t want her to do anything that could get a reaction from her son which then could affect Dykes. 
 
 Kirkland said Ethan wasn’t physically hurt except for a skinned knee, a rash and ant bites. 
 
 When she saw him for the first time after his release, Ethan was coloring and putting stickers on people in the emergency room of the hospital. 
 
 Kirkland told her son that she missed him. He said he missed her, too. 
 
 
 
 Dr. Phil pledged to Kirkland that he would continue to assist the family and help Ethan continue to heal. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (Article was updated at 1:21 a.m. to correct a typo). 
 
 
 
 
 

– Jennifer Kirkland quickly forgave Jimmy Lee Dykes for taking her child hostage in Alabama for almost a week, she says. Dykes, who cooked for Ethan Gilman and asked authorities to pass him a favorite toy, "took care of Ethan to the best of his abilities," Kirkland told Dr. Phil McGraw. "From the very beginning I had already forgiven Mr. Dykes, even though he still had my child." Ethan saw Dykes die at the hands of authorities, Kirkland said, per the AP. Days before, he had seen his bus driver shot by Dykes. The driver, Charles Albert Poland, had been a friend to Ethan, who often sat near him while riding, Kirkland noted—as on the day of the shooting. "The reason I think Ethan was taken off the bus is because when he saw Mr. Poland shot, Ethan passed out," his mother said. "Mr. Dykes went down to catch him and he picked him up. And I think, in his own way, he was trying to care for him." During the interview, Ethan whispered to her, "My bus driver is dead," AL.com reports.