Hostages Taken---Man Down

Ok, I live out in the DC suburbs, Maryland to be exact. I get called by my brother while I'm at work here reviewing an affidavit, telling me I might have trouble going home after work because of a hostage situation in the Discovery Channel headquarters in downtown Silver Spring, MD. I live north of that area. Some Asian guy is holed up in there with hostages. Oh, great. Had to be an Asian guy. How nice.

One of my college buddies is a senior vice president who works for Discovery. I'm thinking of who I can call, who do I know in the Montgomery County Maryland Police Department to get the 411. I know some MCPD guys on the task force but they're in narcotics. They wouldn't be involved in this hostage situation. I check the TV in the conference room at work. There are plenty of MCPD uniform rollers out there. I have to laugh because that's what patrol guys and gals do. If they hear something interesting coming in over the radio, they all want to jump in on it!

Anyway, I'm thinking of my buddy and wondering if I should call his desk number or cell phone. But since I don't know what his situation is, would I make it worse? What if he's stuck in his office with the nutjob? Would the phone ringing send this guy over the edge? Would it put my friend at risk to call him? Another friend of mine, who had gotten wind of it, called in. He doesn't think like I do, obviously. Turns out he's okay. Whew. Our friend and his wife, who also works at Discovery, are fine. They weren't even in the building when that nut stormed in; they were at lunch.

The last I heard was that the suspect was shot---was it by sniper? I dunno. But the hostages are safe, the guy's down and I'd like to borrow a night stick from the uniform guys and give the suspect the wood shampoo. Not only did this nut terrorize innocent people, he also jacked up traffic from the street closures. And the DC metro area has some of the worst traffic in the nation.

UPDATE: Looks like the suspect, James Lee, was shot and killed. I'm also talking a little tongue-in-cheek and I don't mean to making light of a serious and scary situation by talking about the traffic jam it has caused or getting some stick time. Unfortunately, Lee never got treated for whatever mental illness he might have had and he became a danger to others.