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The suspected shooter Nasim Aghdam

Woman wounds 3 at YouTube offices, then kills herself

Nasim Aghdam, a blogger of Iranian descent, opens fire at the online video giant's California headquarters, calling out 'Come at me' after making past complaints about the website, saying 'There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube.'

A woman who had voiced complaints online about YouTube opened fire with a handgun at the tech company's headquarters near San Francisco on Tuesday, wounding three people before shooting herself dead, authorities and media said.

 

 

It was the latest in a string of mass shootings in the United States in recent years. Most recently, the massacre of 17 people at a Florida high school has led to calls for tighter curbs on gun ownership.

 

Police did not identify the suspect or say what might have motivated Tuesday's shooting at YouTube, a video-sharing service owned by Alphabet Inc's Google which employs nearly 2,000 people at the San Bruno, California offices.

 

YouTube headquarters in San Bruno (Photo: Reuters)
YouTube headquarters in San Bruno (Photo: Reuters)

 

The woman approached an outdoor patio and dining courtyard on the campus around lunchtime and began to fire before entering the building, police said.

 

Two law enforcement officials identified the suspect later Tuesday as 39-year-old San Diego resident Nasim Aghdam, an animal rights activist, said the shooting was being investigated as a domestic dispute.

 

Nasim Aghdam
Nasim Aghdam

 

San Bruno police officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the identity of the attacker.

 

YouTube spokeswoman Jessica Mason could not immediately be reached for comment on the identification by media.

 

Video from Nasim Aghdam's website

Video from Nasim Aghdam's website

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The website NasimeSabz.com, which media said was linked to the attacker, had several posts about Persian culture and veganism, interspersed with screeds against YouTube.

 

Those complaints included claims the company was not sharing enough revenue with people who create videos for the platform.

 

"There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube, or any other video-sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to," read one posting on the site.

 

Nasim Aghdam
Nasim Aghdam

  

A YouTube account in the name of Nasime Sabz was deleted on Tuesday evening.

 

A US government security official told Reuters there was no known connection to terrorism.

  

Shooter said: 'Come at me'

A YouTube product manager, Todd Sherman, described on Twitter hearing people running, first thinking it was an earthquake before he was told that a person had a gun.

 

"At that point every new person I saw was a potential shooter. Someone else said that the person shot out the back doors and then shot themselves," Sherman said in a tweet.

 

"I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs. Peeked around for threats and then we headed downstairs, and out the front," Sherman said.

 

In a recording of a 911 call posted online by the Los Angeles Times, a dispatcher can be heard saying: "Shooter. Another party said they spotted someone with a gun. Suspect came from the back patio ... Again we have a report of a subject with a gun. They heard seven or eight shots being fired."

 

Scene of the shooting (Photo: Reuters)
Scene of the shooting (Photo: Reuters)

 

YouTube employee Dianna Arnspiger said she was on the building's second floor when she heard gunshots, ran to a window and saw the shooter on a patio outside.

 

She said the woman wore glasses and a scarf and was using a "big huge pistol."

 

"It was a woman and she was firing her gun. And I just said, 'Shooter,' and everybody started running," Arnspiger said.

 

She and others hid in a conference room for an hour while another employee repeatedly called 911 for updates. "It was terrifying," she said.

 

Zach Vorhies, 37, a senior software engineer at YouTube, said he was at his desk working on the second floor of one of the buildings when the fire alarm went off. He got on his skateboard and approached a courtyard, where he saw the shooter yelling, "'Come at me, or come get me.'"

 

Scene of the shooting (Photo: Reuters)
Scene of the shooting (Photo: Reuters)

 

He saw somebody lying nearby on his back with a red stain on his stomach that appeared to be from a bullet wound. Vorhies said he realized there was an active shooter when a police officer with an assault rifle came through a security door.

 

He said the public can access the courtyard where he saw the shooter during work hours.

 

Michael Finney, a 21-year-old supervisor at Carl's Jr. across from the campus, said he came out of the bathroom to see a woman in a booth bleeding from the calf. Two friends were trying to stop the bleeding, using the victim's sweatshirt as a tourniquet, but it wasn't helping, he told the San Jose Mercury News.

 

"Everyone was figuring out what to do," Finney said. "I was trying to stay calm and see what I could do. Everybody is shocked."

  

Dozens of emergency vehicles quickly converged on the YouTube campus, and police could be seen on televised aerial video systematically frisking several employees leaving the area with their hands raised.

 

One victim, a 36-year-old man, was listed in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital. A 32-year-old woman was listed in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition. Authorities did not release names of the victims.

 

Support sign at Walmart offices (Photo: AP)
Support sign at Walmart offices (Photo: AP)

 

The three patients taken to San Francisco General Hospital were all awake, Dr. Andre Campbell, a trauma surgeon at the hospital, told a news conference. All were victims of gunshot wounds, Campbell said, but none of them had undergone surgery.

 

A fourth person was taken to a local hospital with an ankle injury from fleeing the scene.

 

"It's with great sadness that I tell you—based on the latest information—four people were injured in this horrific act of violence," Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in letter to employees posted on Twitter.

 

"I know a lot of you are in shock right now. Over the coming days, we will continue to provide support to help everyone in our Google family heal from this unimaginable tragedy."

 

In a separate tweet, Pichai said he and YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki were "focused on supporting our employees and the @YouTube community through this difficult time together."

 

Scene of the shooting (Photo: Reuters)
Scene of the shooting (Photo: Reuters)

 

President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he had been briefed on the shooting.

 

"Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved," Trump tweeted. "Thank you to our phenomenal law enforcement officers and first responders that are currently on the scene."

 

In response, Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey tweeted: "We can't keep being reactive to this, thinking and praying it won't happen again at our schools, jobs, or our community spots. It's beyond time to evolve our policies."

 

Last month, YouTube announced it would ban content promoting the sale of guns and gun accessories, as well as videos that teach how to make guns.

 

Female mass shooters are rare. A recent Washington Post analysis shows only three of 150 US shootings with more than four victims since 1966 were carried out by women. In 2015, a husband and wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.04.18, 08:55
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