SAN BRUNO, Calif. _ YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam practiced at a gun range Tuesday morning before she went to the company's San Bruno campus and wounded three people before shooting and killing herself in what investigators said was a violent revolt against the company's content policies, authorities said.
San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said there is "no evidence" linking Aghdam, 38, to anyone at the scene and that there is no evidence she was selecting her victims. The shooting seemed motivated by her anger at YouTube's "policies and practices," he said. Aghdam had recently railed against the YouTube over perceived censorship of her uploads.
Meanwhile, the company released a statement Wednesday saying the "shocking and disturbing" event will lead to more security at its offices worldwide.
"We know that she was upset with YouTube and we've determined that right now that's the motivation that we've identified," Barberini said. "Whether that rises to the level of terrorism hopefully will be determined in the next couple weeks."
Barberini said the 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun used in the Tuesday afternoon attack was legally purchased and registered to Aghdam, and that she apparently sharpened her shooting skills beforehand.
"(Aghdam) went to a local gun range yesterday morning prior to visiting YouTube," the chief said.
San Bruno police investigators spent more than an hour at Jackson Arms, a South San Francisco shooting range, Wednesday. They declined to say why they were there. Range owner Jason Remolona would not to answer questions about whether Aghdam had been at the range, referring questions to police.
At her family's home in the Riverside County community of Menifee, her father walked out of the house Wednesday afternoon and handed a gathering of reporters a typed statement shortly after a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent left the home around 2 p.m. carrying a heavy, gray plastic bin.
"Our family is in absolute shock and can't make sense of what has happened yesterday. Although no words can describe our deep pain for this tragedy, our family would like to express their utmost regret, sorrow for what has happened to innocent victims. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families," the statement read. "We are praying for speedy recovery of the injured and ask God to bestow patience upon all persons hurt in this horrific, senseless act."
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital said Wednesday that two victims have been released: a 32-year-old woman admitted in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman admitted in fair condition. A 36-year-old man remained hospitalized in serious condition, the hospital said.
The FBI and ATF are also involved in the investigation, and Wednesday morning, authorities executed search warrants in Menifee and at the San Diego home where relatives say she most recently lived with her grandmother.
In interviews late Tuesday, Aghdam's family said they warned police about her potential for violence and that Aghdam "was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life." Her brother, Shahran Aghdam, said he was particularly worried after learning that his sister had been contacted by police before to the shooting in Mountain View, and realizing how close that was to YouTube headquarters.
Family members said they were not aware she had a gun, and surmised it must have been recent purchase.
"We called the cop again and told him there is a reason she went all the way from San Diego to there so she might do something. I didn't know she has a gun. I thought she might go there and start a fight or something and then the cop told me he would keep an eye on her," he said. "And after 12 hours the shooting happened, so they didn't do anything and she got killed and three or four more people got hurt. I did the best I can to avoid it but the cop didn't do their job."
Mountain View police objected to that characterization and in a statement Wednesday detailed their exchange with Aghdam's family. Aghdam was reported missing Monday after being last seen on Saturday.
In the statement, police said officers encountered Aghdam around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday when they ran a license-plate check on parked car occupied by a woman who was asleep inside, and their check turned up the missing persons report. Officers contacted the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, where the report was filed.
Aghdam, they said, freely identified herself and told officers that she was having problems with her family and was also 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," police said in the statement. "Throughout our entire interaction with her, she was calm and cooperative ... she in no way met any reason for us to speak with her further or possibly detain her."
Police then contacted her family, and talked to Aghdam's father and brother, and said "at no point in the 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."
The father called back an hour later, police said, to specify that she had recently become upset about something YouTube had done to her videos, and that might be the reason she was in Northern California. Police added that "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," police said.
San Bruno police left the YouTube campus early Wednesday after completing evidence-gathering in the case.
"We've turned the building back over to YouTube," Barberini said. "We're completed with our forensic examination of the evidence inside."
Early Wednesday afternoon, groups of six to eight people were escorted in and out of YouTube headquarters, some leaving with backpacks and folders. At least five people in YouTube and Google security jackets patrolled the sidewalk out front and guarded entrances to the campus parking garages, which opened occasionally to let a car exit. All declined to speak to a reporter.
In its statement late Wednesday, YouTube announced an immediate increase in security at its offices.
"We are also revisiting this incident in detail and will be increasing the security we have at all of our officers worldwide to make them more secure not only in the near term, but long-term," the company said.
YouTube said the shooter entered through the parking garage and entered the outside courtyard where the shooting took place, but "thanks to security protections in place she never entered the building itself."
The San Bruno police chief said Aghdam's car has been impounded and is being examined, but that investigators have not recovered any letter or manifesto from Aghdam forecasting the shooting.
The full extent of the violent designs that Aghdam had for the online video giant are still being explored. Aghdam told her family a couple of weeks ago that she was "angry" that YouTube purportedly censored her videos and stopped paying her for content she had been posting about veganism and animal rights.
What is known is that about 10 hours after that early-morning contact in Mountain View, Aghdam showed up at YouTube's campus in San Bruno and opened fire on employees at an outdoor patio.
Aghdam was believed to have parked her vehicle in the rear of a neighboring business, Barberini said, and accessed the campus through a parking garage.
No one else was believed to have been involved, the chief said.
How Aghdam was able to get onto the campus with a handgun was not immediately clear.
An early working theory that the shooting erupted out of a domestic dispute with the male victim steadily evaporated over the course of the afternoon and evening, especially after Aghdam's prolific online video activity came into focus.
Tuesday night, San Bruno police said that the "domestic dispute" notion _ which was proliferated by law-enforcement sources to multiple media organizations _ was not true.
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(Ethan Baron, Matthias Gafni, Julia Prodis Sulek and Richard De Atley contributed to this report.
