Woman opens fire at Youtube headquarters

Police officers stand guard near the headquarters of Youtube in San Bruno on Tuesday, after a woman opened fire at the company’s headquarters, wounding three people before taking her own life.

before 1 p.m., according to recorded traffic posted online by Broadcastify.com.

“Shooter. Another party said they spotted someone with a gun. Suspect came from the back patio,” the dispatcher said, according to scanner traffic posted online. “Address is 901 Cherry Avenue . ... Again we have a report of a subject with a gun, they heard seven or eight shots being fired. This would be from the Youtube building.”

As the reports began to flood dispatchers, a sergeant was heard on the radio taking the call. He told other officers responding or monitoring the situation “to wear their gear.”

Police scanner audio during reports of an active shooter at Youtube’s headquarters in San Bruno, Calif.

Video from the scene showed people holding their hands over their heads as they left the building, which is located in a suburb south of San Francisco. An employee told the Los Angeles Times that three Youtube buildings – 900, 901 and 1000 Cherry Avenue – had been placed on lockdown.

Producers from Youtube tweeted that they believed there was an active shooter on the company’s campus. Some said they heard so many people running that they believed an earthquake had struck. Others

described a gruesome scene.

“I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs,” Todd Sherman, a Youtube producer, wrote on Twitter. “Peaked around for threats and then we headed downstairs and out the front.”

Lucacio Simoes, 40, an Uber driver from San Bruno, learned about the shooting from a friend’s text message while he was having lunch at the nearby Tanforan shopping center. Simoes said he drove his Ford Explorer toward Youtube headquarters to see if he could help.

“There were people running down the street,” he said.

Simoes said he turned off the Uber app and started to pick up people he passed on the street.

“I just opened the door and asked if they needed help. I was getting people away from Youtube. At one point I had seven people in the car. I picked up one man from Sneath Lane and when he got in the car he just started crying. He was in shock.”

Simoes said he performed at least six such rides Tuesday afternoon.

Michelle Tam, a hostess at the Hashes & Brews restaurant about a block away from the company’s headquarters, said a swarm of police and fire vehicles drove into the area around 12:45 p.m.

“We see lots cops and firefighters,” Tam said. “We can’t see any people. It’s just a lot of trucks along the street at the moment.”

Tam said three Youtube employees came into the restaurant appearing visibly shaken.

“They came in from a back door,” she said. “They sat down at a table. They were in a daze. One guy, there was a little blood on his head.”

One employee had a partial fragment of a bullet in her shoe, Tam said.

At another nearby business, roughly two dozen customers barricaded themselves inside Nueve restaurant around 1 p.m., when authorities told them to “stay far away from Youtube,” bartender Carlos Gutierrez told a reporter over the phone.

“Is this really happening, or is it a false alarm?” Gutierrez wondered aloud as he and others huddled near the bar.