3 September 2010 / AP, SILVER SPRING MD.
A gunman shot to death by police after he took hostages at Discovery Channel headquarters said he hated the company’s television shows because he claimed they promoted population growth and environmental destruction.
Three hostages -- two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard -- escaped unhurt after the four-hour standoff on Wednesday in Silver Spring, just outside Washington. After several hours negotiating with the gunman, tactical officers moved in when authorities monitoring him on building security cameras saw him pull out a handgun and point it at a hostage, said Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger. A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing identified James J. Lee as the suspect. It wasn’t the first time Lee, a homeless former Californian, had targeted Discovery’s headquarters. In February 2008, he was charged with disorderly conduct for staging a “Save the Planet Protest.” In court and online, he had demanded an end to Discovery Communications LLC’s shows such as TLC’s “Kate Plus 8” and “19 Kids and Counting.” Instead, he said, the network should air “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.” ”Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what’s left of the planet with their false morals and breeding cultures,” Lee wrote in a bitter manifesto on his website.
