Here’s Everything We Know About YouTube HQ Shooting Suspect Nasim Aghdam

Aidan McLaughlinApr 4th, 2018, 1:11 pm
 

The woman suspected of opening fire inside YouTube’s headquarters near San Fransisco, California on Tuesday, wounding at least three people before fatally shooting herself, has been identified as 39-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam:

Aghdam was armed with a handgun when she walked into the YouTube offices in San Bruno and opened fire, causing a panic. She shot three people before taking her own life by shooting herself in the head.

Aghdam, a resident of Southern California, had a prolific presence on YouTube and Instagram, though both platforms took down her accounts after the shooting.

In a harrowing video posted in January 2017 she claims YouTube “discriminated and filtered” her videos:

Aghdam’s video links to a website, Nasimesabz.com, on which she railed against YouTube for restricting her videos. “Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!” one post on the website reads. YouTubers can gain money from the advertising that accompanies their videos, but the platform “de-monetizes” certain channels if they are too small or have inappropriate content.

Elsewhere on the website, Aghdam posted videos depicting animal cruelty and declared she created the “very first Persian vegan TV commercial and vegan music video.”

Her father, Ismail Aghdam, confirmed that she was angry with YouTube allegedly restricting her videos. Police also said in a presser on Wednesday that she was “upset” with the company’s “policies and practices.”

Her father said that he reported his daughter missing on Monday after she stopped responding to her phone for two days. According to the Bay Area News Group, the morning of the attack, police found her sleeping in her car around 2 a.m.

“Our officers made contact with the woman after the license plate of her vehicle matched that of a missing person out of Southern California,” Mountain View Police spokeswoman Katie Nelson said. “The woman confirmed her identity to us and answered subsequent questions. At the conclusion of our discussion, her family was notified that she had been located.”

Her father warned police that his daughter — a resident of San Diego who drove at least eight hours to reach the San Francisco area — “hated” YouTube, and that she was “angry” the platform was censoring her videos.

NBC reports:

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has also learned the license plate on a car towed from YouTube’s campus Tuesday is registered to Aghdam. In 2014, she posted a video on YouTube of what appears to be the same car, stating that it was vandalized by “anti-vegans” because the car had a sign saying “meat is murder.”

Police on Wednesday revealed that Aghdam went to a gun range near YouTube’s headquarters hours before the attack with a legally owned handgun around noon.

Authorities rushed three people to nearby hospitals to be treated for gunshot wounds after the attack, and evacuating around 200 people from the offices.

Police descended on the website’s headquarters after a number of calls came in reporting gunfire around noon.

One 36-year-old man was in critical condition on Tuesday evening, and two women, a 32-year-old and 27-year-old were in serious condition and fair condition.

ABC7 News initially reported that a law enforcement source revealed the suspected shooter was a white woman wearing a black top and a head scarf.

[image via screengrab]

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Aidan McLaughlin - Editor in Chief

Aidan McLaughlin is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Send tips via email: aidan@mediaite.com. Ask for Signal. Follow him on Twitter: @aidnmclaughlin