YouTube Shooter's Father Told Police She Was Upset Over Videos

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Before Nasim Aghdam opened fire Tuesday at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, injuring three people before turning the gun on herself, the 39-year-old Southern California woman had been approached hours earlier by police as she slept in her car in the city of Mountain View — the Silicon Valley home of YouTube's parent company, Google, located about 30 miles south of where the shooting took place.

The Mountain View Police Department called the "incident at YouTube a tragedy," issuing a statement Wednesday to further address its officers' interactions with the gunwoman hours prior to the shooting.

According to the statement, Mountain View police officers approached whom they would later identify as Aghdam at around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday as she slept in her car in a shopping center parking lot in the 600 block of Showers Drive, about three or so miles from Google's headquarters, Googleplex.

The officers were on patrol and proactively decided to run a check on the car's license plate, MVPD said. They learned the car was registered to Aghdam, who'd been reported missing Saturday to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

"We called the Sheriff’s Office to confirm the missing persons reports, and personnel there told us that in that report, the woman had been reported missing and 'at risk' because she had never gone missing or left home before," MVPD stated. "We contacted the woman inside the vehicle, who was asleep, to check on her and to determine if she was the same person who had been reported missing."

Aghdam confirmed her identity with the officers, reportedly telling them she'd decided to leave her family’s home a few days prior "due to family issues."

"She stated she had come to the area to stay with family and while she was currently living out of her vehicle, she was in the process of looking for a job," MVPD said.

According to MVPD, the officers asked Aghdam "a series of questions including, but not limited to, if she was a danger to herself or others."

"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," MVPD stated. "Throughout our entire interaction with her, she was calm and cooperative."

According to MVPD, officers saw no reason to detain her but because of the missing person report, did call her family a short time later to let them know she'd been located.

Officers reached Aghdam's father and brother, who live in Menifee, California, a suburban Riverside County city about an hour's drive north of San Diego and eight hours south of Silicon Valley.

"The father confirmed to us that the family had been having issues at home, but did not act in any way concerned about why his daughter had left," MVPD stated. "At no point during that conversation did either Aghdam’s father or brother make any statements regarding the woman’s potential threat to, or a possible attack on, the YouTube campus. Also, there was no indication from either Aghdam or her family that she may have been in possession of any weapons."

Aghdam's father called MVPD back about an hour later and told officers his daughter had made a series of vegan videos for her channel on YouTube. He told officers his daughter was upset with the company because of something it had recently done with her videos, and that he believed she may have been in the area because of her issue with YouTube.

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"He did not seem concerned that she was in the area, and wanted to simply let us know that may have been a reason for her move up here," MVPD stated. "Once again, at no point did her father or brother mention anything about potential acts of violence or a possibility of Aghdam lashing out as a result of her issues with her videos. They remained calm throughout this second phone call."

"The incident at YouTube on Tuesday was a tragedy," MVPD concluded. "No one should ever feel unsafe in their workplace. We have full confidence in the investigative efforts of the San Bruno Police Department and their colleagues as they tackle this case. The victims of this heinous act and their families are in our thoughts during this extremely difficult time."

The shooting victims were rushed Tuesday to nearby Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. A spokesman for the trauma center said it received two women and one man who were injured in the YouTube incident, all of whom were shot. The man was in critical condition, while one woman was in serious condition and the other was in fair condition, the spokesman said Tuesday afternoon.

NBC reported that Aghdam's car was towed from the YouTube offices following the shooting.

Photo via San Bruno Police Department