YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam was an enraged immigrant who complained there was less free speech in the US than in her native Iran days before she injured three then killed herself in a shooting spree at the video giant’s HQ the day before her 38th birthday.
New details about Aghdam’s life are emerging as her family in San Diego come to terms with her suicide and gun rampage.
On Tuesday, her brother told The Washington Post how their family moved to the US in 1996 in search of a better life.
Until recently, Aghdam had been making a living through monetized commercials and posts on YouTube where she had gathered thousands of followers through multiple English and Farsi channels.
YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam had complained to her family that YouTube ‘ruined her life’ by stopping lucrative ads on her various channels over concerns about her content which included bizarre workouts she performed in tight catsuits (above). She said it was ‘censorship’ and that they were blocking free speech
Another image from one of Aghdam’s videos shows her dressed in a ninja’s outfit. On Tuesday, she wore a ‘headscarf and glasses’ to go on a shooting rampage at YouTube HQ in San Bruno, California, 500 miles from her home, before killing herself
In another video, she parodied Taylor Swift to sing her own version of the singer’s hit Blank Space. She is pictured kissing her rabbit
She became outraged, however, when the video site started ‘censoring’ her content and removing the lucrative ads which had kept her afloat.
‘She was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life,’ Shahran Aghdam told The Press Enterprise in southern California.
Aghdam moved to the US as a teenager in 1996 along with her family from Iran. In the weeks before the shooting, she complained there was less free speech in America than in the Middle East
Despite earlier reports that Aghdam was 39, her brother said Wednesday would have been her 38th birthday.
‘She chose the day to die the day she came,’ he added.
In a March Instagram post, Aghdam complained about it and suggested there was not as much freedom in her adopted home as there was in Iran.
‘When it comes to freedom of speech do you think Iran is better than the USA or the USA is better than Iran?’ she said.
A fuller picture of her eclectic life is starting to emerge through analysis of her now defunct social media platforms and YouTube channels.
Among her outlandish videos are clips in which she parodies Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.
In others, she appeared in tight catsuits to perform workouts for viewers and others do not feature her but show the slaughter of animals or educational graphics about the ‘dangers’ of anal sex.
On Saturday, she left her grandmother’s home, where she had recently moved into, to drive to San Bruno, 500 miles away near San Francisco.
Her worried father called police to tell them she was missing and that he feared she might be headed towards the tech company’s sprawling, 200,000 sq ft ‘college-like’ campus.
According to Aghdam’s family, she had recently moved in with her grandmother. It is not clear where she filmed her YouTube videos, including this Taylor Swift parody where she sported a blonde wig
This is one of the workout videos Aghdam claims she was ‘censored’ over by the video site
Aghdam, 39, appeared in a string of videos on various English and Farsi Youtube channels under her name where her eclectic content was a mix up animal rights protests, monologues about free speech and racy workout videos
On Monday, she was found asleep in her car by security guards. Questions are now arising over how she was able to gain access to the campus at all.
Using a handgun, Aghdam shot three people then killed herself in the space of several minutes during lunchtime on Tuesday.
Her body was found next to lunch tables in an outdoor area of the campus where employees had been celebrating a colleague’s birthday.
Law enforcement officials had initially said the shooting was being investigated as a domestic dispute after early indications suggested she had shot her boyfriend.
Authorities cover a body with a yellow tarp at YouTube’s headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday after a female shooter opened fire before she shot and killed herself
Aghdam, who is from Southern California but is Persian, regularly complained online that YouTube were filtering and demonetizing her various video channels
Aghdam, who was a self-described animal rights activist and ‘vegan bodybuilder’, had a significant online presence with multiple YouTube channels and social media pages.
In a video that Aghdam posted back in January 2017, she vented about her content being censored. She also said that her YouTube channel, which had more than 5,000 subscribers, used to get many views but claimed she started getting less when the company ‘filtered’ her videos.
Aghdam’s YouTube channels and social media pages were all removed in the hours after the shooting.
Her father Ismail Aghdam said she had told family members that YouTube had stopped paying her for content she posted on the site.
He told the Bay Area News Group that he had warned police his daughter hated YouTube and she might be headed to their headquarters.
He had reported her missing from Southern California on Monday morning after she went two days without answering her phone. Ismail said police contacted him at about 2am on Tuesday to say they had found her sleeping in her car roughly 470 miles from her hometown.
Ismail said police told him that everything was ‘in control’ but he told them she had spoken of her hatred of YouTube in recent weeks.
Aghdam, who was a self-confessed animal rights activist and ‘vegan bodybuilder’, had a significant online presence with multiple YouTube channels and social media pages
Aghdam was a prolific YouTuber who had ranted online against the company’s new policies and for ‘censoring her videos and not paying her’
In a video that Aghdam posted back in 2017, she vented about her content being ‘discriminated and filtered’. She is a self-described Persian animal rights activist and ‘vegan bodybuilder’
Aghdam is a self-described Persian animal rights activist and ‘vegan bodybuilder’. She was a prolific YouTuber who had ranted online against the company’s new policies
Hours later at about 1pm, officers and federal agents swarmed YouTube’s headquarters after dozens of panicked employees called 911 to report gunfire.
When they arrived, police found Aghdam dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said three people were taken to hospitals in San Francisco with gunshot wounds. Investigators do not believe Nasim Aghdam specifically targeted the three victims.
A 36-year-old man was in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman was in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman was in fair condition following the shooting.
Television news footage showed terrified employees leaving the building in a line, holding their arms in the air for police to inspect as they were leaving the building.
Officers patted down people to make sure none had weapons as police vehicles surrounded the area.
Senior software engineer Zach Vorhies said a fire alarm had gone off in the building and workers were calmly evacuating before they realized it was an active shooting.
Vorhies said as they were leaving he saw the shooter in a courtyard yelling: ‘Come at me, or come get me.’
He said he froze and then noticed a victim on his back with what looked like a gunshot wound to his stomach. Vorhies said an officer with an assault rifle then came through a security door.
Another employee, Dianna Arnspiger, said she was on the building’s second floor when she heard gunshots, ran to a window and saw the shooter on a patio outside.
‘It was a woman and she was firing her gun. I just said, ‘Shooter,’ and everybody started running,’ Arnspiger said. ‘It was terrifying.’
The police chief said at a press conference that officers discovered one victim with a gunshot wound when they arrived and then found the shooter with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound several minutes later.
He said two additional gunshot victims were later located at an adjacent business and that a fourth injured person suffered an ankle injury.
The adjacent business was a Carl’s Jr on the same plaza where two women fled after being shot.
Police did not release any further information on the suspect or comment on her possible motives for the shooting rampage.
The shooting had no known connection to terrorism, US government security officials said.
Disturbing live accounts were given by YouTube employees who took to Twitter as the shooting unfolded.
Authorities found the shooter’s body shortly after arriving. Her body, pictured above covered by a yellow tarp, was found near the shattered door (above on right)
Terrified employees were spotted leaving YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California in a line after a shooter opened fire on Tuesday afternoon
A SWAT team is picturing entering YouTube HQ in San Bruno, California, on Tuesday after reports of shots being fired inside
An injured woman stands outside YouTube’s headquarters, while another employee cries on the phone after escaping the shooting on Tuesday
In a flurry of tweets, project manager Todd Sherman said: ‘We were sitting in a meeting and then we heard people running because it was rumbling the floor. First thought was earthquake.
‘After existing (sic) the room we still didn’t know what was going on but more people were running. Seemed serious and not like a drill.
‘We headed towards the exit and then saw more people and someone said that there was a person with a gun. S**t.
‘At that point every new person I saw was a potential shooter. Someone else said that the person shot out the back doors and then shot themselves.
‘I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs. Peaked (sic) around for threats and then we headed downstairs and out the front.’
Employee Vadim Lavrusik was one of the first to report the shooting, tweeting at around 1pm on Tuesday: ‘Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.’
Soon after, he tweeted: ‘Safe. Got evacuated it. Outside now.’
Officers and federal agents swarmed YouTube’s headquarters complex just before 1pm after dozens of panicked employees called 911 to report gunfire
Heavily armed police stood guard outside the front entrance of YouTube’s headquarters after the shooting broke out on Tuesday afternoon
Police search a building at YouTube’s corporate headquarters as an active shooter situation was underway in San Bruno on Tuesday
YouTube employees leave the scene on Tuesday after a woman shot four people then herself
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the parent company of YouTube was doing everything it can to support the victims and their families
Google CEO Sundar Pichai called the shooting a ‘horrific act of violence’.
He said the parent company of YouTube was doing everything it can to support the victims and their families.
Pichai also said the company ‘will continue to provide support to help everyone in our Google family heal from this unimaginable tragedy’.
The YouTube headquarters has more than a thousand engineers and other employees in several buildings on its 200,000 sq ft campus.
President Donald Trump offered his ‘thoughts and prayers’ after being briefed on the shooting.
There was an onslaught of emergency vehicles at the scene moments after the shots were fired
Officers are pictured running towards YouTube’s San Bruno HQ on Tuesday amid reports of a shooter
‘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,’ he tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
Following the shooting, California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher speculated that the shooter could have been an illegal immigrant.
Without any facts, Rohrabacher drew links between the shooting and sanctuary cities during an interview with the Fox Business Network.
‘You were going to discuss with me about sanctuary cities and the sanctuary state movement, and it fits right into what you’re talking about right now,’ he said.
‘Would anyone be surprised? We have a state government in California that’s trying to prevent our law enforcement people from working with the federal law enforcement people to get together the criminal illegal aliens, to deal with criminal illegal aliens.’
Vegan bodybuilder, athlete, artist, comedian, poet, model, singer, host, actor, director, producer: The MANY faces of YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam
Vegan bodybuilder, singer, athlete, artist, and director are just some of the words that Nasim Aghdan used to describe herself. But on Tuesday only one phrase was being used to describe the 39-year-old San Diego woman: YouTube shooter.
Aghdam has been identified as the suspect who opened fire outside of the company’s headquarters in San Bruno, injuring three people before killing herself.
In the hours after the shooting Aghdam’s bizarre online presence has unfurled, revealing an obsession with YouTube’s policies and her channel views.
Aghdam had multiple YouTube channels, which featured videos ranging from ab workouts to what she claimed was the ‘first Persian TV commercial and music video regarding animal rights and veganism’.
She also had an Instagram page, which Aghdam said she preferred, that featured numerous graphic images of animals being mistreated.
Aghdam seemed fixated on the belief that her YouTube views were sinking, posting screen grabs that showed her views had dropped by more than half in nine months
Aghdam, who referred to herself as a ‘vegan bodybuilder’, also frequently posted about animal rights and posted with animals on her social media pages
Aghdam even once posted a picture from her pet rabbit’s funeral on her Instagram page
Aghdam once joined a PETA protest at Camp Pendleton to fight the Marines’ use of pigs in military-trauma training (pictured)
Aghdam also had a separate Instagram account, which was sometimes censored because she posted graphic videos of animal abuse
Aghdam seemed fixated on the belief that her YouTube views were sinking, posting screen grabs that showed her views had dropped by more than half in nine months.
One grab from January 15, 2016 shows Aghdam had received 182,776 views while another grab from October 14 that year showed her video had received 94,617 views.
Aghdam, who identified as Persian, posted videos in both English and Farsi and claimed her latter channel was being filtered by ‘close-minded YouTube employees’.
Aghdam founded a non-profit company for animal rights called Peace Thunder in 2011, but it is currently listed as ‘dissolved’ by the California business register
Aghdam posted numerous photos with her pet bunny and appeared to have an Instagram page dedicated solely to her vegan posts
Aghdam did discuss the company in a past interview with Vegan Idea World, saying that veganism was not just a diet but a ‘belief that affects all stages of life’
Aghdam also liked to post photos of herself in bright evening gowns and in various poses
Aghdam also directed herself in music videos, one of which she claimed was the first ‘Persian TV commercial and music video regarding animal rights and veganism’
Aghdam also posted this comparison, seeming to use what appears to be prosthetic breasts
Aghdam shot a man and two women with a handgun when she stormed YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno on Tuesday afternoon
She had been missing for two days and Aghdam’s father warned police that she could be headed for YouTube because she ‘hated’ the company
She claimed one video, which showed her doing ab exercises, was ‘age-restricted’ in an attempt to ‘reduce views and suppress and discourage’ her from making videos.
Aghdam, who referred to herself as a ‘vegan bodybuilder’, also frequently posted about animal rights and even held a funeral for her rabbit.
She also posted videos of animal abuse, including a dog being boiled alive, as well as pictures of herself in evening gowns posing in front of fake painted backgrounds.