国际英语新闻：U.S. hostage-taking resolved, all hostages safe

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- All hostages have been freed after an armed man who held them in a commercial building in the U. S. state of Maryland was shot dead by police officers on Wednesday, local police said.

"Our tactical units moved in ... They shot the suspect. The suspect is deceased," Thomas Manger, police chief of Maryland's Montgomery County, told reporters.

Manger said that all three hostages are safe and out of the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, Maryland, where the hostage-taking took place.

Manger, who had earlier refused to confirm the condition of the suspect, said the police took actions because the suspect pointed his handgun at one of the hostages.

Police take up position in front of the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. A radical environmentalist took three men hostage in a dramatic siege at the headquarters of a US television channel on Wednesday before being shot and killed by police

Local police shot the suspect after more than two hours of telephone negotiations with him, ending a four-hour dramatic standoff which dominated coverage of major U.S. television networks throughout Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect, who was reportedly upset with the programming of the Discovery network, entered the Discovery Channel headquarters through the main entrance at 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

The man wore what appeared to be a metallic canister device strapped to his front and back and waved a handgun, according to earlier briefings by Manger.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the suspect was shot, Manger said the device may have been detonated.

Law enforcement sources identified James J. Lee as the suspect, saying that an investigation is underway.

Lee, 43, once protested outside the Discovery Channel building in February 2008, local officials said.

He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, the officials quoted court records as saying.