SILVER SPRING, Md. – A gunman who burst into the Discovery Communications headquarters with explosive devices strapped to his body and took three people hostage on Wednesday was armed with starter pistols, Montgomery County Police said Thursday.
The two weapons in gunman James J. Lee’s possession were starter pistols, and not handguns as police previously thought, Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Starter pistols are incapable of firing bullets.
Authorities also found four explosive devices during a search of Lee’s home in the 2500 block of Kimberly Street in Wheaton on Thursday morning. Those devices were successfully detonated.
Investigators are still looking for a vehicle that was owned or operated by Lee.
The hostages – two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard – were unhurt after the four-hour standoff.
On Thursday morning, Lee’s body was removed from the building after officials worked through the night canvassing the building for explosive devices.
The Maryland’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office has completed an autopsy on the body, but spokesperson Cindy Feldstein said officials will not comment on the findings.
Lee’s home, a well-kept, one-story brick rambler, is on a quiet street near Connecticut Avenue.
A neighbor who would only identify herself as “Shelly” told WTOP she saw several marked and unmarked police cars, police dogs and SWAT team members at the home.
Officers took several boxes out of the home.
Police told people in neighboring homes to take their children to a safe location while they searched Lee’s house, in case a device detonated. Shelly told WTOP many of her neighbors stayed at her home during the police search.
Another neighbor told WTOP Lee, 43, rented a room in the home. He was always seen wearing a baseball cap and a dark jumpsuit.
Lee: ‘I’m Ready To Die’
The hostage situation began around 1 p.m. Wednesday when Lee burst into the main lobby with explosive devices strapped to his body and took hostages.
Lee had four makeshift explosive devices strapped to him. Two of them were green propane cylinders – similar to those used with camping grills – with pipes attached that contained shotgun shells. The other two were pipe bombs.
While the police investigation is still ongoing, Manger told WTOP the hostages displayed “tremendous courage.”
“The tremendous courage displayed by the hostages throughout this ordeal was unbelievable,” Manger said.
“For most of the time, the hostages were laying on the ground, and he didn’t engage them much other than saying on the phone, ‘I don’t care about these people.'”
After several hours of negotiations, the tactical officers moved in. Authorities saw the hostages begin to move on building security cameras, saw the gunman shout something and then heard a “pop” they believed to be a gunshot or an explosive device, Manger said.
That’s when an officer shot Lee in the lobby of the building.
“Instantly our folks came around. There was a pop. At this point it’s still unclear whether he shot off a round from the gun he had or whether it was one of the devices on his chest that had been detonated,” Manger tells WTOP.
“He was wearing what appeared to be metallic canister devices on his front and back. He also pulled out a handgun and was waving the handgun around,” Manger said.
When officers turned the corner and confronted the armed suspect, officers saw the gun and shot the man. He was shot at 4:48 p.m. Wednesday.
“There was very little time that we weren’t on the phone with him during the entire event,” Manger said.
“He went from agitation to being calm, to being agitated. He had a wide range of emotions while we were on the phone with him.”
Manger said Lee repeatedly said he was “ready to die.”
“I believe he was not intending to come out of there alive,” Manger said.
One of the devices on Lee’s body detonated when police shot him, Manger said. Authorities later sent in a robot to disarm a device on the gunman’s body.
Lee also had what appeared to be a remote radio frequency or a remote switch with an antenna on it, and police were concerned Lee could use a remote control to set off bombs.
Manger said the items investigators found in the suspect’s packages — a second handgun, batteries and a ski mask — indicated “he was going to be there a while.”
As the hostage situation unfolded, Manger said police did attempt to contact the gunman’s family.
“We were unable to find any family. We were looking for family, friends, his address, anything to help us with the negotiations, but to my knowledge we weren’t able to locate anyone,” Manger said.
Hostages Thank Police
The hostage situation rattled the nerves of those who worked in the building, but its resolution prompted thanks from Discovery employee Jim McNulty, one of the hostages.
“First of all, I want to thank the Montgomery County Police and all the agencies that responded today for helping to ensure the safety of all my colleagues at Discovery Communications…and for helping to get me and my fellow hostages out safely,” McNulty wrote on his Facebook page.
A security guard who was taken hostage served as a calming influence and helped update police throughout the ordeal, Discovery Communications spokesman David Leavy said.
The guard – who was not identified – is a former military officer who served in Iraq. Leavy said law enforcement officials told him that the guard served as a calming influence during the situation and fed information to police.
The guard and two other employees who were taken hostage are at home with friends and family.
Lee’s Past
Lee had his first run-in with the law in California.
He was convicted in federal court of smuggling aliens into the United States in 2003, when he was living in San Diego. In his letter to the judge, Lee said that after 36 years of his life, he had “absolutely nothing to show for it.”
In the letter, he also writes: “I don’t know if my life will end with a happy ending, but all I ask is for an ending that is not in prison.”
Discovery Will Review Security Measures
Discovery spokesman David Leavy said there were a lot of hugs and tears when employees met Thursday and they celebrated the “heroes” who helped get people in the building, including 100 children, out safely.
Police have credited Discovery and its employees with having an emergency planned that worked.
Leavy said the company will seriously review security measures around the building. However, the building’s lobby is considered a public space and Leavy said the company wants to remain connected to the community.
All 1,900 employees and about 100 children in a day care inside the building were safely evacuated. The children were rolled out of the building in cribs and taken to a nearby McDonald’s.
“We were very quickly able to account for all of the kids and reunite them with their parents,” Manger said.
“The plan and the training the Discovery folks did, the employees, really was probably one of the most important things that resolved this as safe as it was resolved because they were able to get out and not panic.”
Discovery spokesman David Leavy says all of the employees in the building safely made it out. He praised employees for following emergency evacuation plans “flawlessly.”
“The priority is going to be nurturing and responding to employee needs over the next couple of days,” Leavy says.
Counselors were on hand for employees on Thursday. Employees had liberal leave Thursday afternoon. The building will be closed on Friday ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
People could be seen gathering on the main floor of a large atrium between the two wings of the building and many people watched from balconies on floors above.
Discovery officials and employees would not give any specifics on what was discussed at the meeting.
Discovery Communications Inc. operates cable and satellite networks in the U.S., including The Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet. Discovery shows include “Cash Cab” and “Man vs. Wild,” and TLC airs “American Chopper” and “Kate Plus Eight.”
Animal Planet also airs the controversial series “Whale Wars,” about attempts by environmentalists to disrupt the Japanese whaling industry.
‘There’s A Guy With A Gun’
As the situation unfolded Wednesday afternoon, Faisal Afzal, a systems engineer at Discovery, told WTOP he was heading back into the building after lunch and was about 20 feet from the door when he heard a street vendor yelling.
“We heard a street vendor yelling, there’s a guy with a gun, there’s a guy with a gun. He’s in the building. And I saw people lying down on the floor at the building. And we just ran away from the building and we heard a couple shots fired,” Afzal told WTOP.
“I saw at least four people lying sideways on the floor.”
NBC News was one of the first news organizations to report the gunman’s name, after producers called Discovery’s general number, and a man identifying himself as James J. Lee got on the phone and said he had a gun and several bombs.
“I have several bombs strapped to my body ready to go off. I have a device that if I drop it, if I drop it, it will … explode,” the man told NBC.
He said he built the bombs in about three weeks. “I did a lot of research. I had to experiment,” he said.
Adam Dolan, a sales director in Discovery’s education division, told The Associated Press by phone that he was heading to lunch with a co-worker when he heard there was a situation in the building.
He was told to go back up to the top floor, the ninth, and lock the door and turn off the lights. Eventually the workers were herded down a stairwell and told to go home.
“Everyone was very scared, but at the same time … I think people were calm and collected and responded as one would expect in this situation,” said Dolan, 28.
Discovery employees told WTOP a mass e-mail was sent initially telling employees to shelter in place in their offices because there was a gunman in the lobby. Then, employees were told to move to the side of the building furthest away from the lobby side of the building. Employees were then moved to higher floors before being evacuated by through the stairwells.
Melissa Shepard, 32, of Peterborough, N.H., a consultant who works there during the week, said she was on the third floor in a large room with several other workers when someone announced over a loudspeaker that there was a situation in the lobby and people should stay at their desks.
After some time, they were told to move to the other end of the building. She said she was among a dozen workers who huddled into an office, shut the door and turned off the lights.
Then she said someone knocked on the door and told them to leave the building. She said there was some confusion as they were told to go to an upper floor or down the stairs.
“Finally, I screamed, ‘Tell us where we need to go…I just want to get out of there,'” she said. “I was shaking…I was like what do we do what do we do?”
WTOP’s Emily Eckland, J.J. Green, Brennan Haselton, Kate Ryan, Adam Tuss, Kristi King and Colleen Kelleher contributed to this report.
(Copyright 2010 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
