YOUTUBE SHOOTING
Nasim Aghdam visited the San Bruno campus the day before deadly attack; was stopped and asked for ID the day of
New details emerge: Shooter Nasim Aghdam was reportedly at the San Bruno campus asking about a job 24hours before the April 3shooting.
SAN BRUNO » YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam visited the tech campus and asked about a job a day before she opened fire at an outdoor courtyard, wounding three people before fatally shooting herself, according to new details revealed by police Thursday.
The news release from San Bruno police also included a previously unreported detail that moments before the April 3 shooting, the 38-year-old Aghdam was initially stopped by a YouTube employee who asked her for a company ID. Aghdam reportedly responded by pulling a pistol out of her purse, prompting the employee to run away and call 911.
Aghdam then entered a courtyard, where she fired randomly into a lunchtime crowd before shooting and killing herself, police said.
The detail about Aghdam’s earlier appearance at YouTube’s Cherry Avenue headquarters provides a notable new point in the timeline leading up to the shooting
ccording to police, she went there around 12:40 p.m. on April 2 and was at the site for about 10 minutes, during which she asked for directions to the main office. She eventually showed up at the front desk, “where she inquired about employment,” officials said.
Until Thursday, the known timeline for Aghdamconsisted of her last being seen in San Diego three days before the shooting, then being contacted by police while she was sleeping in her car inMountain View the night of April 2. The morning of April 3, she appeared at a local gun range about two hours before she appeared at the tech campus and opened fire.
Aghdam’s family contends that when they were alerted that she was in Mountain View, they warned police about her animosity toward YouTube. police said Aghdam exhibited no suspicious or criminal behavior and that the family did not suggest that she was planning to commit violence.
She walked from a nearby parking garage on Bayhill Drive to an outdoor courtyard. Police said an employee “requested that Aghdam produce a YouTube identification badge,” but she ignored the request and “removed a pistol” from her purse.
“Aghdam walked east through the courtyard and began firing indiscriminately into a crowd of employees eating lunch. She emptied her pistol of ammunition, reloaded another magazine, and continued firing at the building and into the crowd,” police said in Thursday’s statement. “Aghdam turned the pistol on herself, firing it into her chest.”
By the time the horror had ceased, police said 20 bullets had been fired, with one more round still remaining in the Smith & Wesson 9mm semi- automatic handgun that she had purchased Jan. 2 froma San Diego gun range.
She picked up the gun on Jan. 16, the same day the internet giant announced more stringent rules for how users make money on the platform, apparently spurring a grudge fueled by the notion YouTube was censoring graphic anti-animal cruelty videos she had posted and had stopped selling ads for her workout videos.
Police reaffirmed Thursday that she acted alone and that “the primary motive for this crime is believed to be Aghdam’s displeasure with YouTube business practices. There is no evidence that her actions were intended to support any specific cause or ideology.”
The investigation into the shooting remains active. Anyone with information about the case can contact San Bruno police at 650- 616-7100 or at sbpdtipline@sanbruno.ca.gov.