Woman shoots 3, herself at YouTube headquarters
Authorities investigate incident as possible domestic dispute
SAN BRUNO, Calif. — A woman opened fire with a handgun Tuesday in a courtyard at YouTube headquarters, wounding three people before fatally shooting herself in what is being investigated as a domestic dispute, authorities said.
Terrified 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.
Authorities gave few details about the shooter and victims, except that the indicentwas being investigated as a domestic dispute, two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the probe.
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 Tuesday night, a spokesman for San Francisco General Hospital said.
Witnesses described terror before officers arrived and discovered a victim near a front door, and then found the shooter several minutes later with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, San Bruno police Chief Ed Barberini said.
He said two additional gunshot victims were found at an adjacent business minutes later. Barberini initially said there were four people who had been shot but later clarified that a fourth person had suffered an ankle injury.
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.’ ”
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.
YouTube’s headquarters has more than a thousand engineers and other employees in several buildings.
“Today it feels like the entire community of YouTube were victims of this crime,” said Chris Dale, a YouTube spokesman. “Our hearts go out to all those who suffered.”