Police Fatally Shoot Man Holding Hostages at Discovery Channel
Sep 2nd, 2010 by Bilal Ali
A four-hour hostage standoff at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in
Maryland ended Wednesday after snipers shot a man who officials say
walked into the building with a handgun.
James Lee, a suspected environmental extremist who was also
wearing what appeared to be metallic canister devices, died after he was
taken into custody. The three hostages are safe, according to reports.
A police spokesman says Lee entered the network’s offices in
Silver Spring and pulled out a gun. Authorities had been negotiating
with him after he made demands and expressed concerns with the Discovery
Corporation, according to Capt. Paul Starks.
Bomb
technicians from the FBI and ATF responded to the scene and almost all
of the 1,900 employees inside were evacuated but “a few” remained on the
upper floors, Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told reporters.
Lee was previously arrested in 2008 for disorderly conduct after
throwing money in the air during a rally outside the Discovery
building, Maryland’s Gazette
reported. According to the paper, he spent almost two weeks in jail
following the arrest and was evaluated by state psychiatrists.
A San Diego, Calif., native, Lee has been linked to an angry
manifesto that was posted on a Web site that lists 11 demands and
accuses Discovery’s programming of “causing more harm than good.”
Among his demands: “Saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife
by decreasing the Human population” and taking shows that encourage
“the birth of any more parasitic human infants” off the air.