FAMILY SAYS YOUTUBE SHOOTER THOUGHT COMPANY WAS “RUINING HER LIFE”

A woman who opened fire at YouTube headquarters Tuesday sent employees running for cover and wounded three people before apparently turning the gun on herself, police say. Thirty-nine-year-old Nasim Aghdam had reportedly told family members she thought YouTube was “ruining her life.”

Investigators said late Tuesday there’s no evidence Aghdam, a resident of San Diego, knew her victims or specifically targeted any of them when she pulled out a handgun and fired off several rounds in a courtyard at the company’s headquarters south of San Francisco. Members of her family say they didn’t think she knew anyone at YouTube.

Earlier reports indicated she may have known one of her victims and initially asked for the male victim by name.

Aghdam’s father, Ismail Aghdam, says his daughter had gone missing for a few days. He said he had called law enforcement in the San Diego area because he was concerned about her recent ire toward YouTube.

He said authorities contacted him Tuesday at 2 a.m. to say they’d found his daughter safe in her car in Mountain View in Northern California, about 30 miles from YouTube headquarters. When the family realized that was near YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, they told police about her recent allegations the company was “ruining her life.” They claim police told them they would be keeping an eye on her.

Nasim Aghdam used the name Nasime Sabz online. A website in that name decried YouTube’s policies and said the company was trying to “suppress” content creators.

“There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!” !” one of the messages on the site said.

Ismail Aghdam says his daughter became angry with YouTube after the company stopped paying for the content she posted online.

In a since-deleted video on the site, Nasim Aghdam, who would have turned 40 in two days, complained that YouTube had started filtering her page and adding age restrictions to keep her viewership down.

Her family says she’d been making a living as a YouTube personality. She posted upbeat videos of herself dancing and singing in English, Farsi and Turkish in front of a green screen. She was an animal-rights activist and exercise devotee, and talked about going vegan.

She had more than 10,000 subscribers on her YouTube channels, all of which have now been taken down.

Ismail Aghdam said that, as far as he knew, she had never owned a gun and he had no idea where she got one. He said the family is “devastated” by what happened.

On Monday, he called police to report his daughter missing after she didn’t answer the phone for two days and warned officers she might go to YouTube, he said.

One victim – a 36-year-old man – was in critical condition, a spokesman for San Francisco General Hospital said. A 32-year-old woman was in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition, the spokesman said.

The world’s biggest online video website is owned by Silicon Valley giant Google, but company officials said it’s a tight-knit community. The headquarters has more than a thousand engineers and other employees in several buildings. Built in the late 1990s for the clothing retailer Gap, the campus south of San Francisco is known for its sloped green roof of native grasses.

Inside, Google several years ago famously outfitted the office with a 3-lane red slide for workers to zoom from one story to another.

“Today it feels like the entire community of YouTube, all of the employees, were victims of this crime,” said Chris Dale, a spokesman for YouTube.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a tweet the company would “come together to heal as a family.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

CCHS GRADUATION2024sat18may6:30 pm6:30 pm

CONTACT INFORMATION

3B Media
105.7 The HOG / Spirit 101.9/ 93.3 The Ranch
94.1 The VIBE / 98.9 The WOLF
37 South Drive
Crossville, TN 38555

Phone: 931-484-1057
Fax: 931-707-0580