James Lee: Protester Takes Hostages at Discovery Channel HQ

UPDATE: Lee has been shot, hostages safe – details here

Excitement right here in Maryland this afternoon as James Lee, a man known for protesting the Discovery Channel, has stormed the network’s headquarters with a gun, taking hostages while seeming to have an explosive device strapped to his chest.

Montgomery County Police say that they are currently negotiating with Lee, who has several hostages on the ground floor of the building in Silver Spring.

James Lee hails from San Diego, California and is well-known for protesting the Discovery Channel.

He distributed a manifesto outside the Discovery Channel building that called on the network to “broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet.”

“All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions,” the statement read.

“In those programs’ places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.”

According to Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, a male suspect entered the Discovery Channel headquarters building and displayed a gun at around 1 p.m. EDT.

“We have no reports of injuries at this point,” Manger says. “At this point, we’re still negotiating with him.”

One witness claims that Lee was wearing a vest that appeared to have two pipe bombs attached to it.

Police were dispatched to the building after receiving a report of shots fired. Discovery Channel employees inside the building were instructed to take cover in locked offices.

The company quickly sent out the following e-mail to all employees: “Don’t Return to 1DP Until Further Notice…No employee should return to 1DP for any reason.”

It is believed that most of the 1,900 people who work in the Discovery Channel headquarters were able to exit the building safely, but some employees are still inside.