SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.: An Iranian-born woman who blogged about veganism and believed YouTube was suppressing her videos opened fire at the company's California headquarters because she was angry with the site's policies, police said on Wednesday.
In a series of Persian and English-language online postings, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, 39, railed against YouTube, the video-sharing site owned by Alphabet Inc's Google before wounding three people and killing herself.
"It is believed that the suspect was upset with the policies and practices of YouTube. This appears to be the motive for this incident," San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini told reporters.
He added that Aghdam did not appear to have targeted particular victims when she opened fire with a hand gun at the open-air plaza.
In some of Agdham's online posts before the attack, she spoke about herself in heroic terms for surviving in a hostile world. Other pages are adorned with pictures of Aghdam scowling and wearing jewellery of her own design.
"I think I am doing a great job," she wrote in Persian on her Instagram account. "I have never fallen in love and have never got married. I have no physical and psychological diseases. But I live on a planet that is full of injustice and diseases."
In an English-language video posted to her YouTube account before the channel was deleted on Tuesday, Aghdam said, "I am being discriminated. I am being filtered on YouTube."
One victim, a man in his 30s, remained in San Francisco General Hospital in serious condition on Wednesday, the hospital said. Two others who had been wounded were released Tuesday night, it said.