Nasim Najafi Aghdam opened fired at YouTube headquarters recently after being upset by the company’s practices and policies.  

Aghdam practiced shooting at a range just hours before taking her 9 mm handgun to the headquarters in Silicon Valley. According to San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini, she shot three YouTube employees before killing herself. Two of the victims were released from the hospital and it is unclear if the third has been released as well. 

Aghdam accused YouTube of restricting the videos on her four channels: one in English, one in Farsi, one in Turkish and one for hand art. She stated in a post, “There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!! Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!” 

In another post she accused YouTube employees of being close-minded and trying to reduce the number on views on her videos by placing age restrictions on them.  

The woman’s brother said that he told police he was concerned that Aghdam “might do something”. She had stopped answering her phone days before the incident. Mountain View Police say they found her in her car and stated, “At no point during our roughly 20 minute interaction with her did she mention anything about YouTube, if she was upset with them, or that she had planned to harm herself or others … Throughout our entire interaction with her, she was calm and cooperative.” 

The police also stated that when talking to Aghdam’s family her father and brother did not mention anything about her being a threat or potentially being violent. Despite this, her brother told interviewers that he expressed concern. “She went all the way from San Diego, so she might do something,” he said he told police. 

The shooters family showed concern for the victims after the incident and said they were praying for their fast recovery. 

More than 1,100 YouTube employees work on campus in San Bruno on sales teams and with advertisers and content creators. YouTube released a statement following the shooting that stated they would increase security at all of their offices to prevent something like this from happening in the future.