On April 3, 2018, at approximately 12:46 p.m. PDT, a shooting occurred at the headquarters of the American video-sharing website YouTube in San Bruno, California. The shooter was identified as 38-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam, an Iranian-American woman who entered through an exterior parking garage, approached an outdoor patio, and opened fire with a Smith & Wesson9 mmsemi-automatic pistol. Aghdam wounded three people, one of them critically, before killing herself with her own firearm.[6][7][8]
Shooting
At 12:46 p.m., San Bruno police received reports of a shooter at the YouTube headquarters.[9] Aghdam's weapon had a capacity of 10 rounds and she emptied one magazine before reloading.[10] Helicopter footage later showed a large hole and broken glass in the building's lobby doors.[11] A coroner's report found that Aghdam died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the heart, finding no evidence of drugs or alcohol in her system.[12]
Perpetrator
Nasim Najafi Aghdam
The perpetrator was identified by police as Nasim Najafi Aghdam (Persian: نسيم نجفى اقدم; 5 April 1979 – 3 April 2018), a vegan activist and fitness personality of Iranian-Azerbaijani heritage.[13][14] She was born in Urmia, Iran; her parents immigrated to Iran from the Republic of Azerbaijan.[14] She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1996.[15][16][17] She was a registered member of the Baháʼí Faith[18] and described how veganism aligned with her religion.[19] She was critical of Muslims and Baháʼís who ate animals.[20] She lived with her grandmother in Riverside County, California,[16][17] and posted content on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and YouTube in Persian, Azerbaijani, English and Turkish.[16] Her content went viral on Iranian social media and drew widespread attention.[21] She had protested with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against the use of pigs in United States Marine Corps training procedures for victims of trauma.[22]
Aghdam purchased and registered a 9 mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol from The Gun Range San Diego, a gun dealer, on January 16, 2018.[23] On March 31, 2018, Aghdam's family reported to the police that she was missing.[5] According to her father, she hated YouTube, and the family was worried she might be traveling to the company's offices.[24][25]
The morning before the shooting, police officers found Aghdam sleeping in her car in a Walmart parking lot in Mountain View, 25 miles (40 km) south of YouTube's headquarters.[26][27] The officers did not identify her as a threat, and it is unclear whether they were aware of the concerns of Aghdam's father.[28] Aghdam visited a shooting range the day before the shooting.[27]
Police believe Aghdam was motivated by perceived discrimination by YouTube towards her channels.[29][30] She complained about the company on her website,[31][32] writing that "Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!" and that the company had demonetized most of her videos.[33]
Her father Ismail, of Riverside County, said that his daughter was a "vegan activist and animal lover" who told him that YouTube had been censoring her videos and stopped paying her for her content. "She was angry," he said.[34] According to the San Jose Mercury-News her YouTube channel included strange workout video clips, graphic anti-animal abuse videos and vegan cooking tutorials.[34]
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote on Twitter: "There are no words to describe how horrible it was to have an active shooter @YouTube today. Our deepest gratitude to law enforcement & first responders for their rapid response. Our hearts go out to all those injured & impacted today. We will come together to heal as a family."[43] Google CEO Sundar Pichai echoed her sentiments on Twitter, and sent an email to his employees describing the shooting as an "unimaginable tragedy" and a "horrific act of violence."[44]Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos, the CEOs of Apple and Amazon respectively, offered their condolences.[45][46]Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and Box CEO Aaron Levie called for stricter gun control legislation.[47]
The Baháʼí National Center condemned the shooting and extended their condolences.[48][49]
^Davis, Kristina (August 13, 2009). "PETA protests military's use of pigs in training". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018. Nasim Aghdam... demonstrated with a plastic sword against the Marines' killing of pigs in a military exercise. "For me, animal rights equal human rights," Aghdam said.
^Astor, Maggie; Salam, Maya (April 3, 2018). "YouTube Shooting: Woman Wounds 3 Before Killing Herself, Police Say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018. Brent Andrew, a spokesman for the hospital, said at a news conference that a 36-year-old man was in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition.
