On April 3rd, 2018 there was a shooting at the Youtube Headquarters in San Bruno, California. The shooting, committed by Masim Aghdam, happened around 12:40 P.M. The police arrived at the scene at 12:48 P.M. It was chaos when they arrived.

Nasim Najafi Aghdam was mad at the Youtube company because of their altered policies. She had a Youtube channel that got numerous views. Then, all of the sudden, she stopped getting views, likes, and comments. She was very upset. That was her reason for carrying out the horrendous act. She has practiced that same morning at a shooting range. She did this with a 9mm Smith and Wesson handgun.

Savannah Ogle (12) expresses her sadness towards this event.

“I think it was really sad. They had no idea it was going to happen and that is what makes it sad,” said Ogle.

The shooter had many opinions on her videos being demonetized or being blocked. She expressed these views on a Youtube video she posted. Also, police are investigating a website because her views were published/posted on it too. On the website was four Youtube channels. One in Turkish, one English, one in Farsi, and one that was made with hand art.

On these websites and channels, you can see her expressing her opinions strongly saying,

“There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!” Another one said, “Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!”

In most, she accuses Youtube employees. She says that they are the ones who put age restrictions. This discouraged her from making new videos. Because of this, she was angry. On another tragic note, her brother warned the police saying that she might do something. He started worrying when she would not answer her phone. Then, on Tuesday morning, police found her in her car around Mountain View. The brother knew this was close to the Youtube headquarters.

When she opened fire, the fire alarm was pulled and people bolted. A software engineer said he ran out the back and saw and heard the shooter, who was in the courtyard, yelling, “Come at me!” and, “Come get me!”

Ogle was upset to hear about the actions of the shooter.

“I was very shocked. I couldn’t and still don’t understand why someone would do this. It is very heartbreaking,” said Ogle.  

Many people had the same reaction. The shooter fired on 3 people: A 36 year old man, a 32 year old women, and a 27 year old women. Once she had finished, Aghdam commited suicide. The man is in critical condition, the 2 women are doing okay.

Many people are devastated at this shooting. All in all, this woman was showing signs, but police did not recognize them. This led to a shooting that, like all, should not have happened in the first place. Hopefully next time, the signs will be recognized and this tragic event will not happen again.

Sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/Youtube-shooting-san-bruno-california-hq-today-2018-04-03-live-updates/

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/us/Youtube-hq-shooting/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/us/Youtube-shooting.html