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Nasim Aghdam's Family Knew She 'Hated' YouTube, Warned Cops Before Shooting
Nasim Aghdam’s brother said he tried to warn police soon before the shooting.
The family of suspected YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam knew about her grudge against the video-sharing site and warned police a day before the attack that she might be heading to its headquarters with sinister intent.
"She was angry," her father Ismail Aghdam told Bay Area News Group, claiming YouTube cut off her revenue stream from her videos.
Her brother Shahran told The Press-Enterprise in Riverside County, Calif. "She was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life."
The night before the Tuesday shooting at YouTube's San Bruno, Calif. campus, Aghdam's father told police she might be headed to the company's headquarters because she "hated" YouTube. Police found her a few hours later in a car in a parking lot in Mountain View, near YouTube's offices. Police said they questioned her but let her go after they determined that she was not a threat to herself or others.
Someone who also identified himself as Nasim’s brother told KGTV in San Diego that the family tried to warn police that Nasim may “do something” at YouTube. It’s unclear if it’s the same sibling.
After he learned that his sister was found sleeping in a car in Mountain View, the brother got nervous.
"I Googled 'Mountain View,' and it was close to YouTube headquarters. And she had a problem with YouTube," he told KGTV. He said he told police that "she went all the way from San Diego, so she might do something."
Police say Aghdam wounded three people in a courtyard at YouTube before turning the gun on herself, and that she did not appear to know any of the victims. One person is reportedly in critical condition.
Aghdam made her YouTube grudge clear on her websites and video channels. Last year, she posted a photo of her standing on a street corner with the caption "YouTube Dictatorship. Hidden policy: Promote stupidity discrimination, suppression of truth,” according to NBC News.
On a website that appears to have belonged to Aghdam, she accused YouTube of censoring and suppressing her videos to silence her and so that they wouldn’t have to pay her revenue.
Nasim’s dad told Bay Area News Group that Wednesday was Nasim’s birthday.
“She chose the day to die the day she came,” he said.
[Photo: San Bruno Police Department]
