A tragic shooting at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California is beginning to follow a familiar refrain. Three days after Nasim Najafi Aghdam opened fire on the complex, people are asking whether local authorities ignored red flags that the suspect was dangerous.
On Wednesday, a relative of Aghdam’s confirmed the family had warned law enforcement that the animal rights activist was “angry” at YouTube for demonetizing her videos. Police were told they needed to watch her and “be careful.” A number of bizarre videos in which Aghdam rails against the company have since been uncovered.
It wasn’t clear whether the family had warned police in Aghdam’s hometown of San Diego, the headquarters of YouTube in San Bruno, or both. But on Wednesday, police in Mountain View -- about an hour away from San Bruno -- confirmed they had spoken to Aghdam just 11 hours before the shooting after finding her asleep in her car.
Aghdam told police she had left home due to family issues and was looking for work.
“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 planned to harm herself or others,” the Mountain View Police Department said in a statement. “Throughout our entire interaction with her, she was calm and cooperative.”
There was a missing person’s report out for Aghdam at the time, which Mountain View authorities spotted when they ran her plates. They called the family, but still found no reason to worry.
"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. 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," Mountain View police said.
The family appears to dispute that account.
"I Googled 'Mountain View,' and it was close to YouTube headquarters. And she had a problem with YouTube," Aghdam's brother told CNN affiliate KGTV. If she was willing to drive that far, she might do something, they worried.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department was the agency that took the missing person’s report from Aghdam’s family. So far, they have declined to say whether they were aware that Aghdam posed any danger.
Three people were wounded in Monday’s shooting, but all are expected to survive. Aghdam turned the gun on herself before she could be apprehended by police.