Armed man holding one hostage at Discovery Channel headquarters
- From: NewsCore
- September 02, 2010
AN ARMED man is holding a small number of people hostage at the Discovery Channel's headquarters building in Maryland, in the United States.
The man, in possession of an apparent explosive device, had concerns with Discovery Communications. The hostages are being held on the first floor of the cable channel’s building. J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Montgomery County Police, said that the man entered the building wearing what was reported to be "a metallic canister on his front and back" and reportedly waved a handgun in the air. Mr Manger confirmed that the man was currently holding " an unconfirmed number of hostages, a small number of hostages" on the first floor of the building. He said that 1900 employees work in the building and that most of them had evacuated. One of the hostages is a male security guard supervisor, according to local FOX affiliate WTTG. He said that police were currently in negotiations with the man. Fox News Channel reported that authorities have identified the man as James Jay Lee, an Asian male in his 40's. Mr Lee has previously protested against the channel and was arrested for disorderly conduct in 2008. Mr Manger declined to confirm the report. Employees in the building were told via email to leave the campus and not return until further notice. Nearly 100 children were evacuated safely from a day care centre inside the building, some still in their cribs, to a nearby McDonalds, WJLA reported. Other workers were told to take shelter in the locked offices on their floors, Fox News reported. The incident began shortly after 1pm local time when police responded to reports of "shots fired". A motive was not immediately clear but WJLA said the Discovery Channel had been receiving threats related to the cable channel's program Whale Wars, a show featuring a group of environmental activists who attack whaling ships. One person inside the building tweeted a link to a website containing what appeared to be a rambling manifesto written by Mr Lee that included a set of 11 demands for the cable channel. It begins: " The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY", before listing the eleven demands. At one point Mr Lee, the purported author of the manifesto writes, "Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture". The manifesto ends with the words, "These are the demands and sayings of Lee." The list of demands was published on the website
