The San Bruno Police Department has confirmed that a woman opened fire at YouTube’s San Bruno headquarters this afternoon, wounding four victims before dying from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
San Bruno Police chief Ed Barberini said in a press conference that one person, who is believed to be the shooter, was found inside the building dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Four victims were taken to area hospitals with injuries, which Barberini said were “treatable.” The hospitals have confirmed that they received victims, but did not comment on their condition.
Reports of an active shooting in or around YouTube HQ first began spreading when Vadim Lavrusik, a member of the Product Management team, said in a tweet that he was barricaded in a room with co-workers after hearing shots.
Details of an “active shooter event” were subsequently confirmed by San Bruno PD and YouTube’s communications department. A spokesperson for the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital told the Hollywood Reporter that victims were “en route” to the hospital, and that police had told the hospital that there were fatalities from the attack.
Since his first tweet, Lavrusik says that he has been evacuated and is safe outside of the building. Another YouTuber, UX designer Lil Chen, said in a separate tweet that she had been evacuated as well, saying she wasn’t sure whether or not the shooter had been located, but that she had seen “blood drops on the stairs.”
“I am behind another building with colleagues,” Chen said in another tweet following her evacuation. “There are helicopters. There are lots of police nearby. I don’t know if the shooter has been found. If you hear they’ve been found, tell me. I’m safe for now, but don’t feel safe until they’ve been found.”
We are responding to an active shooter. Please stay away from Cherry Ave & Bay Hill Drive.
— San Bruno Police (@SanBrunoPolice) April 3, 2018
Local news station KRON4 reported that a witness claims to have heard 20 shots fired during the incident. Local police and a SWAT team entered the building, and the surrounding area was subsequently placed on lockdown.
The Daily Beast is quoting a federal law enforcement official, who said that woman shot her boyfriend. Other outlets have also reported that the police are not currently treating the incident as terrorism, but rather a domestic or workplace dispute.
