As the outrage over gun control rages on in the United States, the country has witnessed yet another tragedy. This one comes barely two months after the Parkland, Florida shooting and just 10 days after the entire country rose up to protest with March For Our Lives. This time, it was a gun-trotting woman and the offices of video-sharing platform YouTube.
On Tuesday, a woman walked into the YouTube HQ in Silicon Valley, San Bruno, California with a gun, and opened fire. She injured three people, killed one, and then then shot herself.
Woman with gun opened fire at YouTube HQ, wounding several before killing herself, officials said https://t.co/e0j6Feisgt#YouTubeHQ #youtubeshooting pic.twitter.com/HB2CSiiXll
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 4, 2018
Around lunchtime on Tuesday, the woman made her way to an outdoor patio and dining courtyard on the campus, and opened fire before entering the building. The employees began running upon hearing the shots; some of them even barricaded themselves into rooms and were later evacuated.
A few of the employees even took to Twitter to share their ordeal during the shooting.
In a thread, Todd Sherman, a product manager at YouTube wrote about how he realised a shooting was happening and how eventually he managed to be evacuated.
https://twitter.com/tdd/status/981262640830754817
https://twitter.com/tdd/status/981262644974776321
https://twitter.com/tdd/status/981262648867143680
https://twitter.com/tdd/status/981259429768085505
Another employee live tweeted how he and his coworkers were barricaded inside a room.
Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.
— Vadim Lavrusik (@Lavrusik) April 3, 2018
The shooter was eventually identified as one Nasim Aghdam, a resident of Southern California. She was a censored YouTube artist and had ranted on her website against the Google-owned video-sharing platform.
The suspected shooter in today’s YouTube incident has been identified. Please see press release for details – https://t.co/Xvr2l9bB9s pic.twitter.com/NEBoX3WWK5
— San Bruno Police (@SanBrunoPolice) April 4, 2018
According to Nasim’s website, many of her videos were censored by YouTube, who she also accused of cheating her of the revenues earned from her videos.
A few days earlier, she had even posted a massive rant about how there was no free speech in the world, and YouTube was targeting her and other video creators like her.
Nasim appears to be an animal rights activist and a vegan, and her videos appear to be primarily about the same.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter to express his shock over the attack.
There are no words to describe the tragedy that occurred today. @SusanWojcicki & I are focused on supporting our employees & the @YouTube community through this difficult time together. Thank you to the police & first responders for their efforts, and to all for msgs of support.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) April 3, 2018
Later, Google’s offcial Twitter handle shared an email that Pichai had sent to all of his employees, condemning the incident and offering support to the entire Google family.
Here is the note that @sundarpichai just sent to Googlers worldwide. pic.twitter.com/bdC6KeTl9c
— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) April 3, 2018
Everyone,
Earlier this afternoon, while our employees were having lunch, we received reports of an active shooter at YouTube in San Bruno. Law enforcement and our security team worked to evacuate the buildings and prioritize the safety of everyone there.
The best information we have is that the situation is contained. It’s with great sadness that I tell you-based on the latest information-four people were injured in this horrific act of violence. We’re doing everything we can to support them and their families at this time.
I’m grateful to everyone inside and outside the company for the outpouring of support and best wishes. I am especially thankful to the first responders and our own security team who acted so quickly to keep people safe.
I know a lot of you are in shock right now. Over the coming days, we will continue to provide support to help everyone in our Google family heal from this unimaginable tragedy.
Let’s everyone come together now to support Susan and the YouTube team.
-Sundar
Our hearts reach out to the everyone who had to bear such a tragedy.