Several tweeters and tipsters are telling DCist that police have responded en masse to the corporate headquarters of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring. In the last few minutes, approximately 30 police cars have surrounded the station. We have received tips that shots may have been fired inside the building. Streets around the building have been closed down. ABC7/TBD is reporting that the building has indeed been locked down and at least one shot has been fired — stay tuned for more information on this breaking story.
UPDATE (1:40 p.m.): Montgomery County Corporal Dan Friz just described the man on TBD TV as a “hostage taker” and that it “appears he has some sort of explosive device on his person.” Friz said that authorities are currently putting together a plan for dealing with the situation. No communication has been made with the man as of yet.
UPDATE (2:05 p.m.): Part of the building was able to be evacuated, including a day care center on the west side of the building — all the children there have safely gotten out. Employees who got out of the building were told to go home. Washingtonian reports that the gunman is in the Georgia Avenue side of the building. The immediate area around the building is being cleared out, and the area should obviously be avoided.
UPDATE (2:20 p.m.): WUSA9 has tweeted that these are the gunman’s demands. However, that website is the same as one produced in 2008 by James Jay Lee, who was arrested in February of that year on charges of littering or disorderly conduct at a protest site at the Discovery headquarters. However — and we cannot stress this enough — we cannot confirm that Lee is involved or the manifesto is a demand of any kind at this moment.
UPDATE (2:30 p.m.): Police are now speaking with the man inside the building, but are not confirming much less, other than he is an Asian male, his concerns are with Discovery and that it is possible that he has a bomb. WTOP’s Adam Tuss reports that most employees have been evacuated. WUSA9 has now tweeted that their report that their report of the gunman’s demands have not been confirmed.
UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): According to NBC News, authorities have confirmed that the gunman is indeed James Jay Lee, as previously rumored.
UPDATE (3:20 p.m.): Montgomery County police just held a press conference and refused to talk about the details of the negotiations. According to Chief Tom Manger, Lee has devices on his front and back and a handgun. Manger said that Lee told everyone to stay still and has remained on the first floor. Manger believes that most employees are out, but that there may be a few still on the upper floors. Manger said that there is an “unconfirmed, small number of hostages” (WTTG reported earlier that the hostage that Lee was holding was a security guard at the building) and that negotiations have been going on for about an hour now. Those looking for a bit more background on Lee should check out Silver Spring, Singular, who has several posts about him and his Discovery-related protests.
UPDATE (4:10 p.m.): Negotiations with Lee have now passed the two hour mark. Police are reporting that there have been no injuries yet. Additionally, Metrobus lines 70s, J, Q Y, Z, F4 and F6 have been affected by the scene, so if you use any of those buses, do take note that your route home might be slightly different.
UPDATE (5:15 p.m.): James J. Lee, who has been holding hostages since early this afternoon at the Discovery Communications headquarters building, was shot at about 4:48 p.m. Lee is in police custody but his condition is unknown at this time. Lee was described by Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger as having a “wide range of emotions” during the negotiations.
Here’s the meat of Manger’s announcement:
He took three people hostage, near the lobby area of the entrance to the building. Over the past several hours, we’ve been in negotiations with the man. Approximately ten minutes ago, the suspect was shot by police officers. A device appeared to go off, we haven’t confirmed that as of this time, we saw some smoke, may have heard a pop, haven’t confirmed all that as of yet. There were three hostages, all of the hostages are safe and out of the building.
Still lots of investigation to be done up in Silver Spring still, but it sounds like the worst of this event is over.
