Crazed eco-terrorist shot dead after taking hostages at Discovery Channel HQ after they 'ignored his ideas for a TV show'

Daily Mail |September 2, 2010

  • At least one device explodes as James Jay Lee is gunned down
  • Lee said he had been inspired by Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'
  • His website urged people to stop having 'disgusting babies' and halt overpopulation
  • He had been arrested in 2008 for protesting outside the same building
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    A gunman has been shot dead by police after taking a number of hostages at the Discovery Channel headquarters in Maryland, U.S., after his idea for a television show was rejected. 
    All three of James Jay Lee's hostages managed to escape safely. At least one device appeared to explode as he was gunned down.

    Lee walked into the main entrance of the building at 1pm today waving a gun and wearing what appeared to be metallic canisters strapped to his front and back.

    Police have not yet confirmed if he was carrying a bomb. Three bomb technicians were rushed to the scene in Silver Springs, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC.

    Most of the 1,900 people who work in the building were able to escape safely. Children were also rushed to safety from the company's daycare facility, including four cribs full of babies.

    They were reunited with their frantic parents in a nearby McDonald's.
    Earlier, police said they are negotiating with Lee now and watching him on CCTV.

    It is not yet clear what he wanted - but it is believed that he became enraged after Discovery rejected his ideas for a television show.