A gunman holding two children hostage in a Texas day-care centre broke off talks aimed at ending the siege yesterday after seeing television images of a third child being freed and carried to safety.
Police Chief Bruce Glasscock said the gunman released a young girl mid-morning yesterday, about 20 hours after the stand-off began, but was then angered by television images of the release and immediately halted negotiations.
"Unfortunately, we feel we have had a setback and we are afraid it has jeopardised the progress that we had made," Mr Glasscock told reporters, asking them to stop running live images of the stand-off. "We are at a critical point."
Authorities said the situation had turned tense and it was not clear if or when they could lure the gunman back into telephone negotiations.
The gunman initially seized 63 young children as well as five adults when he stormed into the Rigsbee Child Development Centre in the north Dallas suburb of Plano on Wednesday afternoon. He released 60 of the children on Wednesday evening and freed the last of his adult captives early yesterday.
Negotiators had hoped the latest release of the young girl, who was believed to be his god-daughter, would set up a quick end to the crisis. Mr Glasscock said the suspect saw the live images of the hostage release on a television inside the day-care centre.
Relatives identified the man as James Monroe Lipscomb jnr (33), and said the two children he was still holding hostage were his son, Monroe, and stepson, Xavier.
His estranged wife, Ms Kristen Shaw, worked at the day-care center and witnesses said he had originally burst into the building to look for her.
Mr Morgan Jones, the natural father of Xavier, cried as he wai ted for word of his son at the centre yesterday.
Radio and television stations in Chicago reported that Lipscomb was accused of killing a man in an argument over money in Chicago in 1990 but was acquitted in a bench trial.
One Dallas television station reported that Lipscomb had a prior felony conviction for injuring a child in 1992 and that he had also pleaded guilty to a separate drug charge.
Police said the man had not harmed the children and had negotiated calmly and reasonably until breaking off the talks. Food was taken into the building yesterday morning, and the captive children were believed to be comfortable.
Ms Denise Anderson, a teacher at the centre who was taken hostage at the start of the siege, said yesterday that Lipscomb had been "real good with the kids".
However, she also said he had appeared agitated. "He seemed very hyper and kept pacing in the room with his gun held down. It was extremely frightening."
Police said they would wait the gunman out rather than risk a confrontation. Police spokesman Mr Carl Duke said fatigue would probably play a factor in getting the gunman to surrender. "We are getting tired. We can only assume he is also getting tired," he said.