"THIS IS A CRY FOR HELP"
SUSPECT APOLOGIZES, SAYS HOSTAGE SAVED HIM

By BEN TINSLEY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

"We bonded in the truck. She told me about her family, and I told her about mine," Jones said calmly Tuesday. In an interview at the Collin County Jail, he recounted Sunday's low-speed chase through three counties.

Jones, 32, faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon.

Police say he hijacked an 18-wheeler in Collin County, kidnapped truck driver Christie Bundren, 51, and led authorities on a four-hour chase across Dallas and parts of south Tarrant County. Jones said that at the time he was full of anger and despair and wanted to die.

Bundren's husband, Larry, said Tuesday that his wife is "pretty shaken up mentally."

"She's not ready to give comments yet," he said. "She had to take the gun away from him, and that's enough to give anybody a nervous breakdown."

Jones said Bundren talked him out of doing anything that would get him killed. He said he was intent on making police officers shoot him.

"I went in and she was just there," he said. "I never meant to target her."

NBC5 reported that Jones said the gun was not loaded; Collin County authorities said the gun they received was not loaded.

Jones said Bundren urged him to calm down. And he said he is sorry.

Jones said he has had trouble finding jobs that paid more than minimum wage since he was released from prison in 2002 after serving nine years for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He said he earned his general equivalency diploma and took several college-level classes in prison.

He said he had been dealing with depression Sunday. "This is a cry for help," he said. "It's a cry of pain."

Jones' bail is set at $500,000.
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Many of you all must have seen the TV coverage of this sorry _________'s kidnapping of the poor woman who was in her big rig when he decided to steal it. Ain't it grand when the def. gets enough book learnin' in the joint to adopt theraputic-speak?

When a rat like this asks for help after terrorizing citizens, I always wish Denzel Washington's character from A Soldier's Story was around to give it to him. If you have seen the flick, you know that a drunken Sgt. Waters (played brilliantly by Adolph Ceaser) begs Pvt. Peterson (Washington)for "help." Peterson responds by kicking the high holy out of him, saying, "That's the kind of help I'm gonna give you, boy."

Hep him, Ben.

My investigator swears that on the news last night the anchor was identifying the family of the perp and said "due to privacy concerns (or something to that effect) the station has decided not to identify the babymomma." Did anyone else hear this?

While it's on the boards, let's give it up for the Troopers and their fancy shooting. DPS is one of the only agencies I know of where they practice shooting from a moving vehicle. Watching them reminded me of an old Marine Corps sniper buddy of mine who said "Don't run, you will only die tired".