<p>Three hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — escaped unhurt after the four-hour standoff on Wednesday in Silver Spring, just outside the nation’s capital. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />A law enforcement official said authorities had identified James J Lee as the suspect, but police had not released the gunman’s identity.<br /><br />Previous encounters<br /><br />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 <br /><br />Communications LLC’s shows such as TLC’s Kate Plus 8 and 19 Kids and Counting.<br />Instead, he said, the network should air “programmes encouraging human sterilisation and infertility.”<br /><br />“'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.<br /><br />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.”</p>
<p>Three hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — escaped unhurt after the four-hour standoff on Wednesday in Silver Spring, just outside the nation’s capital. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />A law enforcement official said authorities had identified James J Lee as the suspect, but police had not released the gunman’s identity.<br /><br />Previous encounters<br /><br />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 <br /><br />Communications LLC’s shows such as TLC’s Kate Plus 8 and 19 Kids and Counting.<br />Instead, he said, the network should air “programmes encouraging human sterilisation and infertility.”<br /><br />“'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.<br /><br />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.”</p>