In a brief press conference Wednesday morning, San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini told reporters that the YouTube shooter had legally purchased her handgun and that she had trained on a local range prior to the incident.

Late Tuesday evening, the San Bruno Police Department, which serves YouTube’s hometown, identified the suspect in Tuesday’s shooting at the YouTube campus as Nasim Aghdam, a 39-year-old woman from San Diego. She ended the shooting when she took her own life.

While Barberini declined to name the gun range, there is one just three miles away from YouTube’s headquarters in the nearby city of South San Francisco.

The chief also noted that the victims, who are being treated for their wounds, were not specifically targeted. He also said that Aghdam was able to access YouTube’s courtyard via a parking garage—and she did not enter any buildings.

Barberini provided a few more details about the incident, confirming that she was upset with the company’s “policies and practices.”

Earlier videos—which have been removed from YouTube and Facebook but remain scattered in other places across the Internet—include clips of Aghdam railing against perceived grievances concerning age restrictions and demonetization.

Last year, Google overhauled its age restriction rules and enforcement policy. This resulted in a wave of videos being demonetized, which angered YouTubers who could no longer attach money-making ads to their videos.

Prolific video maker

Ruchika Budhraja, a Facebook spokeswoman, confirmed to Ars that the company had deleted Aghdam’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and wrote that the company would also “delete content that praises or supports the shooter or the horrific act as soon as we are aware.”

Budhraja also sent a corporate statement that reads, in part: “This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with all those affected. There is absolutely no place on our platforms for people who commit such horrific acts.”

On her website, “Nasime Sabz” (“Green Nasim”), which remains online, Aghdam describes herself as a “vegan activist.” (“Sabz” is the Farsi word for the color green and, in this context, likely refers to her support for “green” issues such as veganism.)

Aghdam was also previously photographed and interviewed by the San Diego Union-Tribune during a 2009 protest by the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which took place outside Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

Her Telegram channel, which still features numerous Farsi-language videos of her, primarily discussing her health beliefs, jumped from around 1,300 subscribers late Tuesday to more than 5,000 by Wednesday morning. The encrypted messaging app is very popular in Iran and among Iranians abroad.

Searches underway

Police in the city of Mountain View, approximately 27 miles south of San Bruno, said in a statement released Wednesday morning that, at about 1:40am on April 3, officers ran the license plate of a vehicle parked just a few miles from Google headquarters. The plate search showed the car belonging to a woman who had been reported to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office on March 31 as missing.

“We called the Sheriff’s Office to confirm the missing persons reports, and personnel there told us that, in that report, the woman had been reported missing and ‘at risk’ because she had never gone missing or left home before,” the Mountain View Police Department wrote. “We contacted the woman inside the vehicle, who was asleep, to check on her and to determine if she was the same person who had been reported missing.”

MVPD officers spoke to Aghdam, who identified herself and said that she had left home days earlier “due to family issues.” She added that she was looking for a job.

“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 had planned to harm herself or others,” the MVPD wrote. “Throughout our entire interaction with her, she was calm and cooperative.”

The MVPD also said that its officers later called her family to let them know that she was OK.

“Roughly one hour after our phone call to Aghdam’s family, her father called us back to let us know that she made a series of vegan videos for her channel on YouTube and that the company had recently done something to her videos that had caused her to become upset,” the statement said.

“Aghdam’s father stated that she may have been in the area because of this. He did not seem concerned that she was in the area and wanted to simply let us know that [there] may have been a reason for her move up here. Once again, at no point did her father or brother mention anything about potential acts of violence or a possibility of Aghdam lashing out as a result of her issues with her videos. They remained calm throughout this second phone call.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms have been interviewing Aghdam’s family in Southern California’s Riverside County. Investigators are also now executing search warrants at two properties.

Meanwhile, Brent Andrew, a spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, told Ars via text message that two of the victims were discharged Tuesday night, while one remains in “serious condition.”

As of Wednesday morning, YouTube employees have reportedly returned to work.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1288105