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YouTube shooter 'upset with site policies'

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39-year-old Nasim Aghdam shot three employees at YouTube headquarters before taking her own life.  Nasim Aghdam YouTube channel

Local police say the gunwoman in the YouTube HQ shooting was a prolific site user seeking revenge.

San Bruno Police Department has confirmed the woman who opened fire on employees at YouTube's San Bruno headquarters was "upset with policies and practices of YouTube."

39-year-old San Diego resident Nasim Najafi Aghdam entered the YouTube facility on Tuesday and shot three employees with a semi-automatic handgun before taking her own life.

The self-proclaimed animal activist was reportedly upset with YouTube removing her videos from the streaming site in 2017. In a video on her YouTube channel, she claimed the company was blocking her content from viewers. 

"My old videos hardly get views and my old videos, that used to get many views, stopped getting views," she said. "This is because I am being filtered."

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Police said Nasim Aghdam was a prolific YouTube user with a website covering topics of politics, animal rights and lifestyle advice. nasimesabz.com

Aghdam's family had reported her missing on March 31 after she left the house without warning. 

Mountainview Police Department later located her just after 1AM Tuesday April 3, asleep in a vehicle in a Walmart carpark south of San Francisco. The Department said she claimed she had left home due to "family issues".

"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."

San Bruno Police said they received multiple 911 calls at 12.46pm later that day reporting gunshots at the YouTube facility and arrived at the scene two minutes later to find Aghdam dead with "self-inflicted gunshot wounds" and three wounded employees.

San Bruno Police Chief, Ed Barberini said Aghdam had legally purchased the gun and had taken it to a shooting range prior to her attack on YouTube's headquarters.

"At this time there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted," said Chief Barberini.

He said it was a "heinous" act and sent his thoughts to the victims and their families.