Montgomery County Police are trying to find a resolution to a hostage situation at the Discovery Communications Building in downtown Silver Spring, Md.
Around 1 p.m., the alleged suspect, James Jay Lee, who is requesting that Discovery stops airing programming encouraging human redevelopment, entered the building with what Montgomery County police chief Tom Manger described as metallic canister devices on both his front and back. The suspect then brandished a firearm and demanded that everyone stay still.
Most of the nearly 1,900 employees in the building and all the children of a daycare center were evacuated from the premises, but there are still a unconfirmed number of hostages.
“A small number of hostages are with the suspect at this point,” Manger said. “We are in negotiations with him currently and those negotiations are ongoing.”
Manger said that the police were trying to get the suspect to release the hostages and surrender peacefully.
According to court documents, Lee was arrested twice for disorderly conduct in 2008 and, according to various news reports, has had issues with Discovery in the past. He allegedly held a multi-day protest outside the Kennett Street building and threw thousands of dollars in the air, the {Gazette} newspaper reported at that time.
Lee allegedly posted his demands on a Web Site in which he blames the overpopulation of the Earth for pollution.
“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,” he says. “All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.”
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Update:
Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger confirms there were three hostages inside the Discovery Communications building. They are all safe and have not been injured. Police have shot the alleged suspect and he is still inside the building. The extent of his injuries have not been released.
The Montgomery County Police have confirmed the suspect’s death. Kevin Frasier, battalion chief with the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Squad, said officials are currently scanning the building for any remnants of firearms and bomb-making materials.
Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told reporters Lee had been on probation for a 2008 protest incident outside Discovery Communications. His probation ended two weeks prior to the Sept. 1 rampage.