Who is James Jay Lee?

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - A man walked into the Discovery television network building in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon with a gun and explosions, took three people hostage before police shot him dead. All the hostages escaped safely.

James Jay Lee, an Asian in his 40s, was identified as the gunman, according to FOX News , citing confirmation from the Discovery Communications. Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told reporters during a Wednesday evening news conference that police shot Lee after they reportedly saw him point a gun at one hostage. He was killed around 4:50 p.m. Eastern Time, nearly 4 hours after the standoff began.

MyFox DC reported that a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing said authorities had identified Lee as the suspect.

At an earlier news conference, Montgomery County police said that a man entered into the lobby of the building wearing a vest with metallic canister devices attached to the front and back. The police also said that he allegedly waved a handgun.

When he walked into the building he told everyone to stay still, police said.

MyFox DC has live coverage of the situation .

Lee had a history of protesting the cable channel. He was arrested outside the Discovery Channel headquarters on Feb. 21, 2008, during a protest. He was later sentenced to 6 months of supervised probation for disorderly conduct, according to MSNBC.

Lee was arrested on Feb. 21, 2005 after throwing thousands of dollars into the air at a protest outside of Discovery, reported the Gaithersburg, Md., Gazette newspaper . A judge ordered him to stay away from the building and threated jail if he went within 500 feet of the building.

He was apparently upset over Discovery's coverage of environmental, overpopulation and immigration issues.

Lee was also reportedly responsible for the website, Save the Planet Protest , which is currently down, but Business Insider posted the contents of the site.

The site consisted of a long list of demands, including:

"The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's 'My Ishmael .'"

"All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions."

"Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture."

Fox News reported that Lee experienced an "awakening" after seeing former vice president Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth."

Lee's brother-in-law, Thomas Leonard, told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that he believed Lee was capable of killing. "Absolutely, he’s gone this far,’ Leonard said.