Police: Shooter dead; bullets injure three at YouTube campus

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — A woman opened fire at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., wounding three people before taking her own life in what is being investigated as a domestic dispute, authorities said Tuesday.

At least two law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told news outlets that the shooting was being investigated as a domestic dispute, with the shooter targeting someone who worked on the YouTube campus.

The shooting occurred in an outdoor area that is easier to access than other parts of the campus, the sources said. It was unclear if the assailant worked there.

San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini told reporters Tuesday afternoon that one person, believed to be the shooter, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Four people were taken to hospitals for medical treatment, three with gunshot wounds. Another person suffered an ankle injury.

Officials with Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center said the hospital had taken in three patients, two women and one man. A 36-year-old man was in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman was in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman was in fair condition.

The condition of the fourth person was not available.

Several YouTube employees sent tweets Tuesday afternoon, saying people were racing out of the company’s Cherry Avenue offices shortly after 1 p.m.

In a tweet, President Donald Trump offered his “thoughts and prayers” to everyone involved in the incident Tuesday afternoon. The White House said officials were monitoring developments.

Witnesses in the area said they saw dozens of firefighters and police officers descending on the area. Other witnesses said they saw police holding rifles and other weapons.

The first reports of a shooting came in to San Mateo County dispatchers before 1 p.m., according to recorded scanner 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 audio 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.”

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 Ave. — 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. “[Peeked] around for threats and then we headed downstairs and out the front.”

Other employees huddled inside, calling 911 as officers and federal agents swarmed the company’s suburban campus sandwiched between two interstates in the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Bruno.

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. Google, which owns the world’s biggest online video website, said the company’s security team worked with authorities to evacuate buildings and was doing whatever it could support the victims and their families.

Information for this article was contributed by James Queally, Benjamin Oreskes, Richard Winton,Tracey Lien, Angel Jennings, Joseph Serna and Hailey Branson-Potts of the Los Angeles Times and by Michael Balsamo, Ryan Nakashima, Sudhin Thanawala, Eric Tucker and Janie Har of The Associated Press.

“It was a woman and she was firing her gun. And I just said, ‘Shooter,’ and everybody started running.”

— YouTube employee Dianna Arnspiger