Father of YouTube Shooter Warned Police Daughter Was Heading for the Company’s HQ

Father of YouTube Shooter Warned Police Daughter Was Heading for the Company’s HQ
Tom Ozimek
4/4/2018
Updated:
4/4/2018

The father of a woman who shot three people before turning the gun on herself at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California, warned the police his daughter was furious with the company.

Ismail Aghdam, the father of the 39-year-old shooter Nasim Aghdam, said to Mercury News that his daughter told the family that YouTube had “stopped everything,” and “she was angry.”

Ismail Aghdam said the family called the police on Monday, April 2, to report his daughter missing.

He told the outlet that his daughter had not answered her cell phone for two days.

Then he warned the police that she might be heading to the company’s San Bruno headquarters because she “hated” YouTube.

In the early morning hours of  Tuesday, April 3, Mountain View Police called the family to report that they had found Nasim Aghdam sleeping in her car and that everything was “under control.”
“Our officers made contact with the woman after the license plate of her vehicle matched that of a missing person out of southern California,” said Mountain View Police spokeswoman Katie Nelson, according to a statement made to Mercury News.

“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.”

The father described his daughter as a vegan activist and an animal lover.

Aghdam posted videos in both English and Farsi and claimed her channel was being filtered by "closed-minded YouTube employees." (Facebook)
Aghdam posted videos in both English and Farsi and claimed her channel was being filtered by "closed-minded YouTube employees." (Facebook)

Nasim Aghdam entered the premises of YouTube and opened fired on employees around lunchtime on Tuesday, March 3, before taking her own life.

The attack left three others injured with gunshot wounds.

Authorities released the identity of the shooter in a statement from the San Bruno police department on April 3.
Sources have confirmed that Aghdam was a user of the video viewing platform and ran a website with a manifesto criticizing YouTube for its censorship and demonetization of her video content, reported ABC News.
On her website, Aghdam claimed that YouTube had suppressed and stifled the traffic to her videos.
“Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!” the website reads.
“Be aware! Dictatorship exists in all countries but with different tactics! They only care for personal and short-term profits and do anything to reach their goals even by fooling simple-minded people, hiding the truth, manipulating science and everything, putting public mental and physical health at risk, abusing non-human animals, polluting the environment, destroying family values, promoting materialism and sexual degeneration in the name of freedom and turning people into programmed robots!”
“There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!”

She also used a quote by Adolf Hitler to describe YouTube’s tactics: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it.”

The website also includes videos promoting veganism and photos of a woman, believed to be Aghdam, in dresses and leotards. The website also includes embedded videos from other YouTube creators who talked about the drop in traffic and demonetization of videos.

The 38-year-old also created a video to express her concerns about YouTube.

Aghdam’s YouTube videos have now mostly been removed. The video streaming website showed that Aghdam’s pages had been “terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.”
Aghdam’s other social media accounts have also been removed or deactivated. She posted online using English and Farsi, the official language of Iran, reported Newshub. Aghdam’s parents are believed to be Iranian, according to CBS News.
The shooting occurred in an outdoor patio and dining area. Officials said the firearm used was a 9 mm handgun.
Heavily armed police responded to the active shooting as employees ran from the building. After an initial search, police found Aghdam dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Three other people—a 36-year-old man, a 32-year-old woman, and a 27-year-old woman—were transported to local hospitals with gunshot wounds, reported CBS News.
NTD.tv contributed to this report.
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Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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