YouTube shooting timeline: how it all unfolded
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - Nasim Aghdam wounded three YouTube employees Tuesday before turning the gun on herself. Here is a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting and the aftermath of the investigation:
April 2: The father of Nasim Aghdam calls the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office to report that the 39-year-old is missing and possibly headed for YouTube headquarters in San Bruno. The sheriff’s office lists her as an “at risk” missing person because leaving home unexpectedly is out of character.
April 3: At about 1:40 a.m. Mountain View police officers find Aghdam sleeping in her car in a parking lot on the 600 block of Showers Drive. Police run her license plate and learn she was reported missing from San Diego County. Aghdam identifies herself to officers and says she left home a few days earlier because of family issues. She tells officers she came to the area to stay with relatives and was living out of her car while looking for a job. Police say she was “calm and cooperative” and told them she was not a danger to herself or others. Police say she did not mention anything about YouTube during the 20-minute conversation. Police let her go.
April 3: Sometime after 2 a.m., police call her father and brother and let them know Aghdam was located and is fine. Police say the family members did not seem overly concerned and did not make any statements about the woman’s potential threat to, or a possible attack on, the YouTube headquarters. Police say there was no “indication from either Aghdam or her family that she may have been in possession of any weapons.”
April 3: Sometime after 3 a.m. Aghdam’s father calls Mountain View police back. He tells police that his daughter had made a series of videos about vegan cooking, workouts and animal abuse for her channel on YouTube, but was upset with the company because they had stopped paying her for her video content. Aghdam’s father says she may have been in the area because of this. Police say her father did not mention anything about potential acts of violence against the company.
April 3: Sometime between 1:40 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. Aghdam takes her legally purchased 9mm Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun to an unknown gun range to practice shooting.
April 3: 12:46 p.m. San Bruno police receive the first in a series of 911 calls from employees at YouTube reporting the sound of gunshots at the campus at 901 Cherry Ave. Some employees later say they thought the sounds were from an earthquake.
12:48 p.m. Two minutes after the first 911 call, police arrive at YouTube headquarters and start searching the building.
12:57 p.m. YouTube employee Vadim Lavrusik posts the first tweet about the situation, saying “Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with co-workers.”
1:01 p.m. San Bruno police post a tweet: “Police activity at 901 Cherry Ave., please stay out of the area." Police do not mention YouTube or report the active shooting.
1:10 p.m. YouTube product manager Todd Sherman tweets that co-workers told him that the shooter shot out the back doors of the building but is now dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In another tweet, Sherman says, “I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs. Peaked around for threats and then we headed downstairs and out the front.”
1:13 p.m. Vadim Lavrusik, the first employee to tweet about the shooting, tweets that he is outside the building and safe. Shortly after, scores of employees are seen pouring out of the building with their hands behind their heads. Each is searched and let go as police continue to try to determine if Aghdam acted alone.
1:28 p.m. San Bruno police send out a second tweet. “We are responding to an active shooter. Please stay away from Cherry Ave & Bay Hill Drive.”
1:30 p.m. Google Communications sends out a tweet about the YouTube situation that says “We are coordinating with authorities and will provide official information here from Google and YouTube as it becomes available.”
2:25 p.m. Local news media reports that the shooter, described as a white woman wearing a headscarf, is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
2:37 p.m. San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberin holds a news conference and confirms that a person is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He says four victims have been taken to local hospitals for treatment of gunshot wounds. The information is later corrected to say there are three victims.
2:49 p.m. President Trump tweets that he was just briefed on the shooting. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene.”
3:14 p.m. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Trauma Surgeon Andre Campbell reports that two women and a man were being treated for gunshot wounds and their conditions range from critical to stable. He reports that each was shot twice.
6:19 p.m. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki sends out a tweet about the day’s events. “There are no words to describe how horrible it was to have an active shooter @YouTube today. Our deepest gratitude to law enforcement & first responders for their rapid response. Our hearts go out to all those injured & impacted today. We will come together to heal as a family.”
7 p.m. Relying on unnamed law enforcement sources, local television reporters begin to name Aghdam, who has her own YouTube channel, as the shooter. Reports say she “hated” the company because they were suppressing her videos.
10:26 p.m. San Bruno police officially identify Aghdam as he shooter and release her picture. Police say they are investigating a motive for the shooting, but that there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims or that individuals were specifically targeted.
April 4: 8:35 a.m. San Bruno police chief says investigators have finished forensic work in the YouTube building, but have not completed a search of the shooter’s vehicle.
9 a.m. Police confirm that Aghdam had no personal connection to anyone at YouTube. Police also give an update on the victims, saying a 32-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman were released from San Francisco General Hospital while a 36-year-old man remains in serious condition. Police also confirm that Aghdam accessed a YouTube courtyard through a parking garage. San Bruno police chief says authorities are still working to determine how she was able to enter the company's headquarters via a parking garage.
11 a.m. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says agents are searching Southern California homes where the YouTube shooter had lived. San Bruno police requested the searches.
Five South San Francisco police officers have visited at a gun range not far from the YouTube headquarters where a woman shot and wounded 3 people before she killed herself.
1:15 p.m. Five South San Francisco police officers spend nearly two hours at the Jackson Arms Shooting Range in South San Francisco. Aghdam visited a gun range prior to the shooting, but it's not clear at this point if it was Jackson Arms. The range has surveillance cameras inside and outside of the facility and is about 3 miles from YouTube's headquarters.