Star Trek

Discovery Channel gunman James Lee shot dead by cops, all hostages unharmed after standoff

By Corky Siemaszko
NY Daily News Staff Writer

September 2nd, 2010

A crazed tree-hugger who believed the Discovery Channel wasn't doing enough to save the planet was shot dead Wednesday after he invaded the company's headquarters and took three hostages.

The four-hour standoff in a Washington suburb ended safely when James Lee "pointed a handgun at one of the hostages," and a Maryland police sniper blew him away.

"I have several bombs strapped to my body ready to go off," a man identifying himself as Lee told NBC News when a producer called the Discovery Channel's main number during the standoff. "I have a device that if I drop it, if I drop it, it will ... explode."

He said he built the bombs in about three weeks.

"I did a lot of research. I had to experiment," the doomed man said.

None of the men Lee was holding captive were hurt and most of the roughly 1,900 people who work in the building were evacuated long before Lee died. So were dozens of children from a day care center at the site who were reunited with their terrified parents at a nearby McDonald's.

As the terror subsided, a portrait emerged of the 43-year-old gunman, who appears to have financed his fatal fiasco by selling off some properties he'd inherited in Hawaii.

On his MySpace page, Lee described himself as an atheist and a fan of "Spanish music" and said one of his heroes was the "Star Trek" character James T. Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise.

Police said he was bunking in a Silver Springs homeless shelter when he launched his rampage.

Lee was no stranger to the Discovery Channel. Last year, he was arrested outside its headquarters on littering and disorderly conduct charges after he hired some homeless men to stage a demonstration - and threw thousands of dollars of cash into the air to protest corporate greed.

"We are running out of time to save this planet and the Discovery Channel is a big part of the problem," Lee wrote on a flyer that he passed out at that protest.

Lee said Discovery was taking "the focus off what is really important" by running shows like "Cash Cab" and "Dirty Jobs" and not enough shows about global warming.

At trial, Lee said he was inspired to save the planet by "Ishmael," a novel about a talking gorilla, and by Al Gore's global-warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Before he struck at 1 p.m., Lee posted 11 demands on his website that revealed he'd recently adopted extremist anti-immigration views.

Lee wrote that he was determined to save "the Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels."

He wrapped up his screed with, "These are the demands and sayings of Lee."

Wonder if he was wearing a red shirt when they popped him?