Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Sep 2, (THAINDIAN NEWS) On Wednesday, a gunman was shot down by the Montgomery County Police at the Discovery Channel headquarters at Silver Spring where he took three hostages and threatened to destroy the building by dropping explosives he was carrying. Although the authorities are yet to come up with the identity of the gunman, some law enforcement officials on condition of anonymity said to media sources that the man has been identified as James J. Lee. The three hostages, two employees of Discovery Channel and a security guard however have escaped unharmed.

The incident took place at around 1 p.m. Wednesday when the gunman entered headquarter of Discovery Channel armed with a gun and at least one explosive strapped to his body and threatened to damage the building. He immediately took the security guard and two other men as hostage. The rest of the 1,900 employees of the Discovery Channel were evacuated from the building. The Montgomery County Police that reached to the situation immediately, tried to negotiate with the gunman on Telephone. During the period of negotiations however there was hardly any change in the tone and intention of the gunman and the tactical officers moved it when officers monitoring the gunman saw him pulling out the handgun and pointing it at one of the hostages.

It is not known for sure whether James J. Lee was able to fire a shot. The Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said that an explosive device which was strapped on the gunman’s body was detonated when police officers shot him dead. Reports claim that the police were trying to determine whether the two backpacks and two boxes carried by the gunman contained explosives.