Police Release Body Cam Video Of YouTube Shooter Nasim Aghdam

California police have released body camera footage of YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam  in her car in Mountain View calmly telling officers she wasn’t going to hurt anyone just hours before she opened fire at the company headquarters  on April 3. 

Three people were wounded in the shooting later that day at the YouTube offices in San Bruno, about 30 miles away. Aghdam, 39, died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.

Aghdam was apparently asleep in the backseat of her car in a parking lot in Mountain View when an officer spotted her shortly after 1:30 a.m. Police called in her license plate number and discovered she had been reported missing by her family in San Diego.

A male and female officer knocked on the window of the car and asked Aghdam if she was aware that her family was searching for her. 

“We didn’t get along together, so I left them,” Aghdam explained, adding that she drove straight to Mountain View from San Diego the previous day. Asked if she wanted to hurt herself or anybody else — or commit suicide, Aghdam responded: “No.” 

Asked why she picked Mountain View, Aghdam said: “I wanted to sleep around here. I wanted to get out of those areas, out of San Diego. I have memories I don’t want to have.” She said she wanted “somewhere new” with “no memories about [the] past.”

She said she wasn’t on medication. Police found no other official alerts about Aghdam and left her, but they called her father,  Ismail Aghdam, to tell him she had been located. He thanked them but later called to say that Aghdam was upset about YouTube and may have been in the area for that reason. But police said he did not warn them about the possibility of violence.

Police did not ask her if she had a gun. The 9-millimeter handgun she used in the shooting had been purchased legally. She went to a shooting range later that day before heading to the YouTube offices.

Mountain View police defended how they handled the situation.

“Our officers followed proper procedure and protocol. They checked on the welfare of a person who, at the time, was reported missing but whose actions, demeanor and answers did not present any information which would cause us to believe she would be a threat to herself or others,” said Chief Max Bosel.

“The tragedy of the incident at YouTube weighs heavily on our hearts, but we support and stand by the actions taken by our officers in their contact with Ms. Aghdam.”

Aghdam was a prolific social media user and had several YouTube channels in multiple languages, including English, Farsi and Turkish. Her videos often showed her dancing or cooking vegan recipes. Her Instagram account had more than 55,000 followers. She began to complain in the months before the shooting that YouTube was suppressing content and was discriminating against her.

“She was always complaining that YouTube ruined her life,” her brother, Shahran Aghdam, told the San Jose Mercury News  from the family’s home in Menifee, California. 

Here’s the complete body cam video: