Woman shoots 3, self at YouTube in possible domestic dispute
A woman opened fire with a handgun Tuesday in a courtyard at YouTube
headquarters, wounding three people before fatally shooting herself in what is
being investigated as a domestic dispute, authorities said.
Terrified employees huddled inside, calling 911, as officers and federal
agents swarmed the company's suburban campus sandwiched between two interstate
freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Bruno.
YouTube employee Dianna Arnspiger said she was on the building's second floor
when she heard gunshots, ran to a window and saw the shooter on a patio
outside.
She said the woman wore glasses and a scarf and was using a "big huge
pistol."
"It was a woman and she was firing her gun. And I just said, 'Shooter,' and
everybody started running," Arnspiger said.
She and others hid in a conference room for an hour while another employee
repeatedly called 911 for updates.
"It was terrifying," she said.
Two law enforcement officials identified the suspect later Tuesday as Nasim
Aghdam of Southern California and said the shooting was being investigated as a
domestic dispute. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to discuss the case.
They gave little information about the victims.
A 36-year-old man was in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman was in
serious condition and a 27-year-old woman was in fair condition, a spokesman for
San Francisco General Hospital said.
Witnesses described terror before officers arrived and discovered a victim
near a front door and then found the shooter several minutes later with what
appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, San Bruno Police Chief Ed
Barberini said.
He said two additional gunshot victims were found at an adjacent business
minutes later. Barberini initially said there were four people who had been shot
but later clarified that a fourth person had suffered an ankle injury.
Zach Vorhies, 37, a senior software engineer at YouTube, said he was at his
desk working on the second floor of one of the buildings when the fire alarm
went off. He got on his skateboard and approached a courtyard, where he saw the
shooter yelling, "'Come at me, or come get me.'"
He saw somebody lying nearby on his back with a red stain on his stomach that
appeared to be from a bullet wound. Vorhies said he realized there was an active
shooter when a police officer with an assault rifle came through a security
door.
He said the public can access the courtyard where he saw the shooter during
work hours.
Michael Finney, a 21-year-old supervisor at Carl's Jr. across from the
campus, said he came out of the bathroom to see a woman in a booth bleeding from
the calf. Two friends were trying to stop the bleeding, using the victim's
sweatshirt as a tourniquet, but it wasn't helping, he told the San Jose Mercury
News.
"Everyone was figuring out what to do," Finney said. "I was trying to stay
calm and see what I could do. Everybody is shocked."
Google, which owns the world's biggest online video website, said the
company's security team worked with authorities to evacuate buildings and was
doing whatever it could support the victims and their families.
YouTube's headquarters has more than a thousand engineers and other employees
in several buildings. Originally 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 famously outfitted the office several years ago with a
three-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 YouTube spokesman. "Our hearts
go out to all those who suffered."
The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and
that officials were monitoring developments.
Source: Associated Press
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