RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: Radical environmentalist took three men hostage in a dramatic siege at Discovery Channel building  Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:54 am | |
| A radical environmentalist took three men hostage in a dramatic siege at the headquarters of a US television channel on Wednesday before being shot and killed by police.
All the hostages - two Discovery Communications employees and a security officer - were unharmed after the four-hour stand-off at the Discovery Channel during which suspected explosives strapped to the gunman's body apparently detonated in a cloud of smoke.
Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said SWAT officers moved in after officers, monitoring the gunman on building security cameras, saw him pull out his pistol and point it at one of the hostages.
Pedestrians walk near the cordoned off building.
"At that point our tactical units moved in. They shot the suspect. The suspect is deceased," Mr Manger told reporters.
An explosive device on the gunman's body detonated when police shot him, Mr Manger said. Police were trying to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks the gunman had also contained explosives.
The suspect was reported to be James Lee, an Asian American with a history of protest against the Discovery Channel and who was convicted in March 2008 of disorderly conduct, given six months of supervised probation and a small fine.
Mr Manger acknowledged the gunman "had some history with the folks at Discovery Channel and I believe in fact that he was arrested here a couple years ago".
Mr Lee entered the lobby of the sprawling building about 1pm (3am AEST Thursday), waving a pistol with a package and "metallic" canisters strapped to his body, police said.
Bomb disposal experts were rushed to the scene as the building and the surrounding area were evacuated. Infants were wheeled away in cribs from a day-care centre on the first floor of the building.
Police were still investigating reports the gunman fired at least one shot as he stormed into the building, a large complex in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring where about 1900 people work.
Mr Lee, who had his own Save The Planet protest site, admitted on a web page attributed to him he had a gripe with the Discovery Channel, which is known for its wildlife documentaries as well as military and survivalist programs.
He had protested outside its offices in the past, and his list of demands included that the cable station "broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet".
Mr Lee insisted that Discovery "stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants", cease promoting war and weapons of mass destruction through its technology programming, and promote an end to all immigration.
"Civilisation must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed," he said in one rant.
"Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet!"
Unchecked population growth was a theme attacked time and time again in Mr Lee's postings.
"Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human wildlife by decreasing the human population," he said. "That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies!"
Discovery Channel spokesman David Leavy, executive vice-president for corporate affairs, said the station's security teams were familiar with Mr Lee, but had not considered him a threat because his views were so outrageous.
"If you follow what he said public online, I don't think it is rational," Mr Levi said. "We certainly were cognisant and aware of him, but we did not take his demands or threats seriously."
Mr Leavy said all employees had been accounted for.
"We're relieved that it ended without any harm to our employees," he said.
Melissa Shepard, 32, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, a consultant who works in the building, said she was on the third floor with several other workers when someone announced over a loudspeaker that there was a situation in the lobby and people should stay at their desks.
After some time, they were told to move to the other end of the building. She said she was among a dozen workers who went into an office, shut the door and turned off the lights.
Then she said someone knocked on the door and told them to leave the building. She said there was some confusion as they were told to go to an upper floor or down the stairs.
"Finally, I screamed, 'Tell us where we need to go! ... I just want to get out of there.'
"I was shaking. I was like, 'What do we do? What do we do?'"
Adam Dolan, a sales director in Discovery's education division, said that when he got to the bottom floor he saw shattered glass near the company's day-care facility and suspected it was broken to get the children out.
He later got an email saying the children were safe and had been taken to a McDonald's.
Mr Dolan said the company had unarmed security guards who would not let anyone into the building without a badge.
Mr Leavy said Discovery hoped to be open on Thursday.
"The priority is going to be nurturing and responding to employee needs over the coming days as this is a scary event," he said.
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