The woman who allegedly shot three people before killing herself at YouTube’s headquarters on Tuesday was “upset with the policies and practices of YouTube”, according to San Bruno police chief Ed Barberini.
The suspect, identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, was reportedly angry with the video-sharing platform, telling family that the company was censoring her videos and had stopped paying her for her content, The Guardian reports.
According to the Bay Area News Group, the suspect’s father had reported her missing on 21 March and had warned police that she might have been going to the company’s headquarters, 500 miles from her home in San Diego.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Mountain View police department confirmed that an officer had spoken to Aghdam at 2am on the day of the shooting, after finding her asleep in her car.
“An hour later, Aghdam's father called the officer back to say his daughter was likely in the area because of her dispute with YouTube,” reports ABC News, but the officer “heard nothing that raised his concern” and San Bruno police were not told of the encounter.
4 April
Female suspect dead after YouTube shooting
A suspected female shooter has died and three others were injured in a mass shooting at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California.
NBC reports that four senior police officers have identified the shooter as 39-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who used a 9mm pistol to shoot two men and a woman, before turning the weapon on herself.
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital has confirmed that three victims are being treated for gunshot wounds: a 36-year-old man in a critical condition, a 32-year-old woman in a serious condition and a 27-year-old woman, who is in a “fair” condition.
Authorities initially believed the attack was a domestic dispute, but San Bruno police later said there was “no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted”. They added the motive was unclear.
Aghdam’s father, Ismail, told The Mercury News that his daughter was “angry” with YouTube because it had stopped paying her for the videos she posted on the platform.
Her online profile shows Aghdam was a vegan activist who ran a website called NasimeSabz.com – “Green Breeze” in Persian – where she posted “about Persian culture and veganism, as well as long passages critical of YouTube”, says The Guardian.
In one, she accused “new closed-minded” YouTube workers of “reducing her view count, suppressing her and discouraging her from creating content on the video platform”, says CBS.
-
The IDF's manpower problemThe Explainer Israeli military's shortage of up to 12,000 troops results in call-up for tens of thousands of reservists
-
Quiz of The Week: 16 – 22 AugustQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
Can Soho House get its edge back?Talking Point The private members' club has lost its exclusive appeal – but a £2 billion buy-out could offer a fresh start
-
What we know about the Copenhagen mall shootingSpeed Read Lone gunman had mental health issues and not thought to have terror motive, police say
-
Texas school shooting: parents turn anger on policeSpeed Read Officers had to be urged to enter building where gunman killed 21 people
-
DJ Tim Westwood denies multiple sexual misconduct allegationsSpeed Read At least seven women accuse the radio and TV presenter of predatory behaviour dating back three decades
-
What happened to Katie Kenyon?Speed Read Man charged as police search for missing 33-year-old last seen getting into van
-
Brooklyn subway shooting: exploring New York’s ‘steep decline in law and order’Speed Read Last week, a gunman set off smoke bombs and opened fire on a rush-hour train in the city
-
How the Capitol attack investigation is splitting the RepublicansSpeed Read Vote to censure two Republican representatives has revealed deep divisions within party
-
Is sentencing a Nazi sympathiser to read Shakespeare an appropriate punishment?Speed Read Judge seemed to think introducing student ‘to high culture’ would ‘magically make him a better person’ said The Daily Telegraph
-
Sarah Everard’s murder: a national reckoning?Speed Read Wayne Couzen’s guilty plea doesn’t ‘tidy away the reality of sexual violence’
