YouTube shooting: Suspect Nasim Aghdam had account on YouTube, was an ‘animal rights activist’

As the horrific news of shooting incident at YouTube headquarters at California arrived on Wednesday, Nasim Najafi Aghdam has been named as the suspected gunwoman who fired shots at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California on April 3. Major American media houses such as ABC News, NBC News and other outlets have revealed her name as coming from senior law enforcement officials.

Shooter Aghdam had known addresses in San Diego and Riverside Counties in Southern California. She was a frequent user of YouTube, had several channels, and claimed in a video on her website that she saw a decline in views in recent months. She even went on tirades about YouTube “censoring her videos and not paying her”. She was also allegedly a member of PETA and an animal rights activist.

Reports of an active shooter first hit social media in the early afternoon on Tuesday, with YouTube employees posting on Twitter that they were hiding in their offices after hearing shots ring out. Aghdam allegedly shot a 36-year-old man, as well as two female co-workers, ages 32 and 37, before turning the gun on herself, reported Hollywood Life.

Also read: Shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno: 10 things we know so far

It was around 12.46 pm (local time) that the San Bruno Police Department received numerous 911 calls reporting gunfire at the YouTube campus located at 901 Cherry Avenue in San Bruno. The police arrived at the scene at 12:48 pm, two minutes after the first call, and immediately began searching for a possible suspect. Arriving officers encountered numerous employees fleeing the building. Officers discovered one victim with an apparent gunshot wound to a lower extremity at the front of the building.

At 12:53 pm, officers conducting a search located a deceased female inside with a possible self-inflicted gunshot wound. “We have one subject who is deceased inside the building with a self-inflicted wound at this time, (who) we believe to be the shooter,” San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini told reporters at a news conference outside YouTube headquarters. Two additional victims were located after fleeing to a next-door business.