Update, 8:24 p.m.: All is safe now at Discovery Communications, as the gunman, identified by federal officials as James J. Lee, was shot dead around 4:50 p.m. after pointing a gun at a hostage, according to The Washington Post.
AU students who have recently interned at Discovery Communications expressed concern for coworkers who were there today, but no AU students or alumni were reported to have been at the scene.
Jillian Blazek, a senior in the School of Communication, interns at Discovery on Thursdays and Fridays and, just for this week, Tuesday, as well.
Wednesdays, she has two blocks back-to-back on campus. So Blazek was not at the scene during the hostage situation, but the news still perplexed her.
"It was quite a stressful day," Blazek said. "I know a lot of people who were there - my coworkers, other interns."
When she heard that hostages were taken in the lobby, Blazek was very concerned for the front desk receptionist, Rosa, who says "hello" to her every morning.
According to The Post, the three hostages were men, one of which was a security guard.
"Rosa is fine, and everything is fine," Blazek said.
Blazek's phone continued to buzz when the news first broke while she was in class, she said.
"When I checked my phone afterward, I had 7 voicemails and 5 texts, and my roommate called me to make sure I was ok," Blazek said. "It's kind of stressful, but it's kind of nice to know that so many people care about you."
No AU officials tried to contact Blazek because she had not registered the Discovery internship for credit, and she had not told the Career Center about it.
A total of ten AU students are recorded as having registered internships for academic credit at Discovery, according to Arlene Hill, director of the Kogod Center for Career Development, more than the three reported by Francine Blume earlier. But more were interning there than were on AU's records.
"It could be very possible that someone was interning there who was never doing it for academic credit who we would have no record that they were doing an internship," Hill said. "We always want to know where our students are interning," Hill said.
But students are not required to report internships, according to Hill.
"The only way we know where students are is if they let us know," she said.
A Discovery official was familiar with Lee previous to today's incident, according to The Post.
Lee, a radical environmentalist, published a list of demands online (http://SavethePlanetProtest.com) - at a site that seems to be no longer functioning - to explain his grievances with Discovery. He also took out a full-page color advertisement in Express in February of 2008 to promote a protest in front of the Discovery building.
Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger told The Post that Lee had conflicts with Discovery in the past.
All hostages were freed safely after the four-hour-long standoff with Lee ended. In addition, all employees were evacuated. Bomb squads continue to search for explosives in the building, according to The Post.
Update, 5:12 p.m.: An AU alumna who is currently employed by Discovery Communications has been reached. In addition, Caitlin Fillman, an AU undergraduate who is in between internships at Discovery, has responded to efforts to contact her.
Angie O'Brien, 2009 alumna of the School of Public Affairs and School of Communication, responded to Facebook messages inquiring as to her whereabouts.
O'Brien wrote she has been on leave and was not in the office today.
"After some frantic texting, I learned my co-workers and floor were safely evacuated," she wrote. "Thank goodness!"
Fillman, a senior in the Kogod School of Business, interned for the Human Resources department at Discovery Communications this summer and will continue interning during the fall semester.
However, the summer program ended Aug. 20, and the fall internship program does not start until Sept. 20, according to Fillman.
"So no interns should have been there today," she said.
Fillman was at class on campus in the morning and returned to her apartment at 1 p.m., right around the time when the hostage crisis started.
No one from the AU Career Center or the Kogod Center for Career Development reached out to Fillman to ask about her whereabouts, she said.
Administrators from the KCCD were unavailable to comment by press time.
Out of the approximately 80 summer interns for Discovery, about one third were AU students, Fillman said. The only fellow intern and AU student she knew personally was Amanda Schweitzer, who received a graduate degree from the School of Communication this summer and is no longer in D.C.
"It was really scary knowing that's the office I worked in all summer and where I will be working in the fall," Fillman said when asked about her reaction to the news. "I worked in the H.R. department, which is on the second floor, so it's closest to the lobby where the shooting was happening ... It's really concerning knowing my supervisors from over the summer would have been there today."
UPDATE, 2:55 p.m.: Francine Blume has confirmed that no AU students are involved in the hostage situation at the Discovery Communications Headquarters.
The three AU students who do plan to start internships there at the end of the month have been located and are all far from the danger. Currently, two of them are on campus, and the third is traveling out of the country, according to Blume.
Blume said she could not release the names of these students because of privacy reasons.
"In the very rare instance that there is a problem like this, we go into EagleData [a web source for University statistics and information] and look up by zip code to see if any students are registered [for internships] in the area," Blume said. The Career Center then would contact any students nearby.
One student is currently interning at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is in the zipcode 20910, the same as the Discovery Communications building.
"I'm going to call that person next," Blume said.
But the NOAA building is several blocks away from Discovery Communications.
"Phew," Blume said. "Of course, I'm relieved. It doesn't have to be an emergency like this. Any time there is something serious going on at internships, we are there for students."
Blume said even if students are not taking internships for credit, they should let the Career Center know about it.
Original Story:
It is currently unknown whether AU students could be involved in the hostage situation at the Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., but two AU students have recently expressed interest in interning there, according to Francine Blume, Director of Experiential Education at the AU Career Center.
Career Center records do not show an AU student listed to receive academic credit for internships at the Discovery Headquarters, but administrators at the Career Center and the School of Communication are coordinating to confirm whether or not these students did take internships there for this fall semester.
Blume said she is also trying to get in touch directly with the two students but did not provide their names.
More on this story as it develops.
mfowler@theeagleonline.com