A gunman police shot to death after he took hostages at Discovery Channel’s headquarters said he hated the company’s shows such as Kate Plus 8 because they promote population growth, and its environmental programming because it did little to save the planet.
Three hostages – two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard – escaped unhurt after the four-hour stand-off on Wednesday in Silver Spring, just outside the nation’s capital. 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 said authorities had identified James J. Lee as the suspect, but police had not released the gunman’s identity.
It wasn’t the first time Mr 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 “programmes encouraging human sterilisation 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,” Mr Lee wrote in a bitter manifesto on his website.
Mr Lee, 43, also objected to Discovery’s environmental programming. He wrote in 2008 that a show he called Planet Green was “about more products to make money, not actual solutions”.
Police say the gunman burst into the building about 1 p.m. and took hostages in the lobby on the first floor. A gun wasn’t his only weapon, as an explosive device on his body detonated when police shot him, Police Chief Manger said. Authorities later sent in a robot to disarm a device on the gunman’s body.