Police tonight shot a gunman who had taken three people hostage at Discovery Channel's headquarters, ending a tense four-hour standoff near Washington.
The hostages are safe. The gunman, who apparently objected to the TV channel's environmental coverage, died, NBC television network said, quoting law enforcement sources.
'The suspect was shot by police officers. A device appeared to go off, we haven't confirmed that,' Tom Manger, Montgomery County police chief, told reporters.
Police earlier said the man, named by a US law enforcement official as James Lee, appeared to be wearing metallic canister devices that might have been explosives.
Police had monitored the gunman on the building's closed-circuit security system and had negotiated with him by telephone.
A man called James Lee of San Diego was arrested in February 2008 after throwing money into the air in a protest outside the Discovery building, the Montgomery County Gazette reported that year.
A website registered under the name of James Lee contains demands that Discovery air programming urging people to stop having babies, which he says is leading to the overpopulation of the planet.
