Workers back at YouTube after shooting
YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno still had yellow police tape blocking off areas as employees returned to work Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after a disgruntled video maker shot three people and killed herself.
Employees filed into a packed auditorium to ask questions and hear remarks from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, company co-founder Sergey Brin and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Employees came up to a microphone, one by one, and posed questions about Tuesday’s shooting, according to a YouTube employee who was present and declined to provide his name.
Several employees told The Chronicle that YouTube and its parent company, Google, instructed them not to talk to the media.
Questions posed to the executives included: What is the company going to do now? Will YouTube change any policies in response to this tragedy? And what else could have been done?
The shooter, identified as 39-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam, told relatives for almost a year that the company had unfairly limited access to her content on animal abuse and veganism.
Executives didn’t have many concrete answers on what can and will be done, the employee said, but they vowed to address the issues raised.
San Bruno police were still investigating at the scene of the shooting Wednesday afternoon, and employees were given the option of going back to work or taking the rest of the day off. Many took the latter option, giving the headquarters an “eerie” feeling, the employee said.
Broken glass doors still showed signs of the previous day’s chaos, as investigators milled around the company grounds, the employee said. Meanwhile, YouTube employees stood in a line and waited to be escorted into the headquarters in small groups to grab things they’d left behind while running from the shooter.
Counselors were also made available for those who wanted to speak with them.
“It’s crazy,” the employee said, as he walked to his car to go home after the company assembly. He said he was still processing the trauma of Tuesday and was in disbelief that something like this could occur at work, “where it’s supposed to be safe.”
A female employee, who also declined to give her name, said YouTube had done everything it could to make her feel safe. She said Wednesday’s meetings made her feel “better.”
Employees have described YouTube as a small, tight-knit community, where many workers recognize each other. Some employees said they knew the victims but declined to identify them. One shooting victim, a 36-year-old man, remained in the hospital Wednesday in serious condition, while two women rushed to the hospital have been released. A fourth person suffered an ankle injury.
One employee, who declined to provide his name as he walked into work Wednesday morning, said he was in a different building from where the shooting occurred, but the incident had been “stressful.”
“I never thought I’d be running from a gun,” he said.
He added that he had no reservations about returning to work.
Large swaths of the campus remained blocked off Wednesday afternoon, including two parking garages that are attached to the campus. San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini on Wednesday said the shooter parked her car in “the rear of a neighboring business and accessed the campus via a parking garage.”