Police responded to the headquarters of online video portal YouTube this afternoon after receiving calls of a shooter at the San Bruno, California location, which is about twenty miles south of San Francisco.
San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini told reporters that an assailant opened fire inside the building, injuring three people and then taking their own life. The shooter, a woman, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to authorities she killed herself with a handgun.
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 at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital according to a spokesman. Zuckerberg is a level 1 trauma center.
Authorities believe the shooter knew at least one of the victims, but any motive is as of yet unclear. Berberini said he does not know if the shooting was a domestic violence incident. “We know very, very little right now, and we probably won’t know more until tomorrow morning,” he said.
One YouTube employee, Vadim Lavrusik, tweeted while the shooting was ongoing. “Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers,” he wrote.
He would later tweet when he got to safety. “Safe. Got evacuated it. Outside now,” he wrote.
The President was briefed on the shooting and tweeted his thoughts and prayers to all those affected. “Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California. 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 wrote.
More than 1,100 people work at the YouTube office in San Bruno. Employees based there include engineers that work on site infrastructure and sales teams that work with both advertisers and content creators.