SAN BRUNO, Calif. — A woman opened fire Tuesday at the YouTube headquarters in Northern California then apparently took her own life, officials said. At least three people were injured in the incident.
San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said the dead woman was found at the scene and appeared to have killed herself, but the investigation was just beginning.
The shooter is believed to have known at least one of the victims, two law enforcement officials told CNN.
A spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, a level 1 trauma center, said the facility received three patients. One 36-year-old man was in critical condition, one 32-year-old woman was in serious condition and one 27-year-old woman was in fair condition.
One witness inside a cafe near the shooting said the gunfire didn’t immediately register with him.
“It was a surprise because you don’t really expect something like that,” the man told CNN affiliate KPIX. “I heard some pops. I obviously thought it was balloons, but then I thought that doesn’t make sense, not today. Then I heard more shots and that’s when everyone started scrambling for the door.”
Vadim Lavrusik, a YouTube product employee, tweeted he and others hid.
“Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers,” he wrote.
Not long after the first tweet, he wrote: “Safe. Got evacuated it. Outside now.”
Another YouTube employee said during the shooting people were trying to get out of the building “as fast as they could.”
She said she was on a conference call and a colleague, who heard shots, told her at least one person was shot on the patio where people eat.
“We were all suddenly aware of a lot of noises, of sounds, people running outside of the room where she was. And people screaming,” said the employee, who was in a building down the street.
” ‘I have to get out of here,’ ” the woman said her colleague said.
A witness told CNN affiliate KRON he heard two or three shots and later about 10 shots. He was at a Carl’s Jr. fast-food restaurant across the street from an end of the YouTube building where there are tables with umbrellas on a patio.
A woman ran over to the Carl’s Jr. with a leg wound, he said. People at the fast-food restaurant tried to use napkins to stop the bleeding.
Overhead video from KGO showed a heavy police presence outside the YouTube building. A crowd of people gathered outside the building and, one by one, were frisked and patted down by officers. Several roadways near the building were closed to traffic.
President Donald Tump tweeted that he was thinking about the victims.
“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.
Dianne Feinstein, a leading advocate in the US Senate for tighter gun laws, tweeted she was praying for YouTube employees.
The California Democrat wrote: “My stomach sinks with yet another active shooter alert. I’m praying for the safety of everyone at YouTube headquarters.”
YouTube, which was founded in February 2005, quickly became the most well-known of several online video sites. In 2006 Google said it was purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.
More than 1,100 people work at the YouTube office in San Bruno. Employees there include engineers working on site search, infrastructure, content channels and ad products; and sales teams that work with advertisers and content creators.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and FBI will help investigate the incident, according to the angencies’ San Francisco offices.
San Bruno is about 13 miles south of San Francisco.
