Woman Who Opened Fire at YouTube Headquarters Was Reportedly Upset With the Company (Updated)

UPDATE 4/4/18 8:00 A.M.:

According to the multiple outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and CNN, San Bruno, California, police have now identified the shooter as a 39-year-old woman named Nasim Aghdam from San Diego. While investigators initially believed that a domestic dispute may have been behind the shooting, a release from San Bruno police now refutes that account, saying "there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted."

While the investigation is still ongoing, authorities are now reportedly looking into the possibility that Aghdam had issues with YouTube. NBC News reports Aghdam may have been angry at the company because she believed they were suppressing her videos and preventing her from getting views. Aghdam's father, Ismael Aghdam, told The Mercury News that she was a vegan activist and that she told her family that YouTube had stopped paying her for content she posted on the site. The News also reports that, while many of Aghdam's social accounts—including her YouTube videos—have since been taken down, a March 18 Instagram post railed against the company: "All my youtube channels got filtered by youtube so my videos hardly get views and it is called 'merely relegation.' This is also happening to many other channels on youtube. This is the peaceful tactic used on the internet to censor and suppress people who speak the truth and are not good for the financial, political … gains of the system and big businesses. I recently got filtered on instagram too and maybe its related to youtube and youtube staff asked instagram to filter me here too!!?”

Aghdam's father had apparently reported her missing on Monday night after two days of unreturned phone calls, per the L.A. Times. He told police that she might go to YouTube because she "hated" the company. They report that Mountain View police found her in her car early Tuesday morning and notified her family. A spokesperson for that police department told the Times via email: "Our officers made contact with the woman after the license plate of her vehicle matched that of a missing person out of Southern California. The woman confirmed her identity to us and answered subsequent questions."

Original Story:

America is once again confronted with another high-profile shooting with multiple victims, this time at YouTube's San Bruno, California, headquarters.

At around 12:46 P.M. local time Tuesday, NBC News reports that the San Bruno police department began receiving numerous 911 calls from the nearby YouTube headquarters with reports of an "active shooter" on the campus and dispatched officers to the scene. According to NBC News, first responders from the FBI and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms were also on the scene and aiding with the ongoing investigation.

Details are still emerging as officials gather information, but here's what we know so far. San Bruno police chief Ed Barberini said in a news conference that officers found one victim near the front of the building before locating the female suspect who they believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound—though that has not been officially confirmed. Two other victims were found in an adjacent building per CBS News.

According to CNN, three victims were transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and a spokesperson for the hospital confirmed that all the victims had been treated for gunshot wounds.

What is also not currently known is the motive behind the shooting, though initial reports suggest authorities believe this to be an act of domestic or workplace violence, not terrorism. Some Twitter users, however, were quick to cry sexism after some media outlets, including CNN, speculated that the motivation for the shooting was "perhaps a love triangle."

Still, this act of violence does stand out because of the suspected shooter's gender: According to a 2014 FBI study, of 160 “active shooter incidents” that have taken place in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013, women were the shooters in only six of the incidents studied.

As one might imagine, today was frightening for those employees who were just going about a normal day at work. One YouTube employee told CNN, "We were all suddenly aware of a lot of noises, of sounds, people running outside of the room where she was. And people screaming." Another, Vadim Lavrusik, tweeted, "Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers." Employee Todd Sherman wrote of seeing blood drops on the floor and stairs.

Google, YouTube's parent company, said on Twitter that it is "coordinating with authorities and will provide official information here from Google and YouTube as it becomes available." President Trump also weighed in via Twitter writing, "Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene."

This is a developing story; we will update this post as news develops.