Gunman in Discovery Hostage Standoff Dead, Reports Say
UPDATE, 5:50 p.m.: Suspect James Jay Lee is dead, according to Washington Post sources.
UPDATE, 5 p.m.: Police shot the suspect, James Jay Lee, apparently because they feared he was going to set off what they believed was an explosive device. The three hostages he had taken were freed safely. Lee is in police custody.
A man with a gun marched into the lobby of the Discovery Channel's building in Silver Spring this afternoon, taking "a small number" of hostages, authorities say. Police have evacuated parts of the building, and blocked off several streets in downtown Silver Spring. Authorities are now trying to get in touch with the gunman and figure out what he wants.
UPDATE, 3:15 p.m.: NBC News is reporting the man is James Jay Lee. Two years ago, the alleged suspect was arrested after throwing thousands of dollars in the air in a protest outside Discovery, and was ordered to stay 500 feet away from the building. About 1,900 people work in the building, and Montgomery County police say most of them have been evacuated. But a "small number" of people are still being held as hostages.
The scene at the building sounds like it was pretty chaotic. One Discovery employee tells Washington City Paper an announcement was made telling workers to find a safe spot. She and some colleagues went to a conference room, which they barricaded shut with a table. After an hour there, they got an e-mail saying they could leave. She's now standing outside the building, and can see SWAT and bomb squad officers nearby.
Channel 9 News says this is a list of his demands, which City Paper hasn't been able to verify independently. If these are the gunman's demands, though, Discovery isn't likely to agree to them. Here's an excerpt:
All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it... Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!
Watch live video of the situation from Channel 9 here:
Photo by thisisbossi via Twitter/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license
2:55 pm
Ah, delicious. Another Eco-nut shows his true stripes. Wonder how fast this story -- and his motives -- will be buried by the MSM?
2:57 pm
Damned left-wing nut-jobs...
Pro Abortion not enough, now hes gonna kill people to make them have abortions /rolls eyes.
2:58 pm
I for one volunteer to come down there and shoot the human parasitic male now holding people hostage and wasting resources on his useless life.
3:09 pm
Well, I don't condone the methodology but he is spot on with his Malthusian reference, though I would hardly put an end to reproductive science. That said, one only need look at the atrocious "Octomom" to see our misguided messenger's point and reflect upon some of our collective choices. Welfare subsidizes, and therefore promotes, illegitimate births and one only need look at the situation in, er, "urban" areas to see the effect of this dysfunctionalism.
3:11 pm
Sounds like one of those Tea Party people or someone who is unhappy about Obama's health care program.
3:16 pm
another violent leftist
3:19 pm
More Leftist Moonbats are showing their hand every day.
Thanks, liberalism!
3:24 pm
Another Malthusian Darwinian Greenie abortionist. A bit extreme but of the same ilk.
6:26 pm
Well at lease the police wrote the final chapter in his manifesto, end of story!
6:49 pm
Well. The world loses one more left-wing radical nut job and the democrats lose another voter. I guess he should be happy. Nature works. The weak, feeble-minded and dumber animal was just stripped from the herd and removed from the gene pool.
6:58 pm
These comments are ignorant and absurd. This man was not "leftist," he was psychologically disturbed. To try to link him with mainstream Democrats and the mainstream media is grasping for straws in the worst sense. He is no more leftist than the Ku Klux Klan is right-wing.
7:15 pm
Kinda like when the whole tea party is painted as racist?
11:46 pm
Personally I wouldn't mind if all those stupid baby shows went off the air and they played something else instead..but we all know that's not going to happen! So I just -don't watch TLC- simple, problem solved.
That guy is just off his rocker. I'm a childfree person and I guess you could say I lean a little to the left sometimes, but no matter how much I can understand what irritated the guy, nothing excuses the way he acted on his feelings.
I dislike all these "leftist" and "rightist" comments...any one person only represents him/herself in the world. Democrats and Republicans don't have some sort of 'hive mind' they all share, so generalizing them as a group isn't exactly fair.
Let's just hate him as a person instead of as a representative of some larger group, no? xD