Female YouTube Shooter Is Nasim Aghdam, PETA Warrior

YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam (Facebook via KGO-TV)

The shooter at YouTube's San Bruno HQ has been identified as Nasim Aghdam. Also, we found that Aghdam was a radical PETA supporter.

From ABC7 San Francisco:

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KGO) -- Chaos erupted on the YouTube campus in San Bruno Tuesday afternoon when an alleged female shooter entered the campus and opened fire, wounding three employees.

ABC7 News sources confirm the YouTube shooter was a user of the platform. Nasim Aghdam has a website with an alleged manifesto that targets YouTube for censorship and demonetization of her video content.

Most importantly, ABC7 reports that "Aghdam is said to have no relationship with anyone in the YouTube facility." This is significant because nearly all earlier reports said she may have been targeting a male YouTube employee in a "domestic dispute." The fact that her own website indicates otherwise is chilling.   More at ABC7

(Charlie Neuman / Union-Tribune)

You can watch a video by Aghdam here, in which she rants about how YouTube has demonetized some of her videos and complains that her videos were "filtered," causing reduced views. According to NBC Bay Area, "The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has also learned the license plate on a car towed from YouTube’s campus Tuesday is registered to Aghdam. In 2014, she posted a video on YouTube of what appears to be the same car, stating that it was vandalized by 'anti-vegans' because the car had a sign saying 'meat is murder.'" More at NBC Bay Area.

While researching Aghdam, Chicago News Bench found 2009 article in The San Diego Union that featured a photo of Nasim Aghdam protesting with the radical group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Nasim Aghdam, then 29, wore a wig and jeans "with large blood drops painted on them" as she protested with other PETA members at Camp Pendelton on August 12, 2009.

The San Diego Union quoted Aghdam as saying, “For me, animal rights equal human rights.”

I'm no psychologist, but in my layman's opinion it would seem that Ms. Aghdam was mentally unbalanced.

UPDATE: Female Shooter Dead in YouTube Shooting Incident

Photo via Pitchfork.com 

Updated 10:15 PM CDT:

Female YouTube Shooter Identified as Nasim Aghdam, PETA Warrior (Chicago News Bench)

A good summary of the shooting comes from The Guardian (UK) this evening:

"The San Bruno police chief, Ed Barberini, said during a news conference that police had responded to 911 calls from the Silicon Valley tech campus and discovered a woman, whom they believed to be the shooter, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Barberini did not release any information about a possible motive or the suspect’s identity, but said the attack was carried out with a handgun and that there was no further threat to the public."

"Four people were transported to local hospitals, police said, including three with gunshot wounds. The three are being treated at San Francisco General hospital, a spokesman confirmed, including a 36-year-old man in critical condition and a 32-year-old woman in serious condition. It was not immediately clear where the fourth victim was being treated and in what condition." More at The Guardian.

Earlier: 

"Two separate law enforcement sources told ABC7 News that the shooter is a white, adult female wearing a dark top and head scarf." ABC7 reported that the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Note that a scarf does not necessarily indicate that the shooter was Muslim: It could have been meant as a disguise or to control her hair.

With No Gun, Crazed Man Slaughters Five in Brooklyn

Police lead the suspected killer away
from the Brooklyn murder scene.
Photo: Paul Martinka / New York Post

October 27, 2013 - Horror in New York, on Saturday night: A mother and four children were stabbed to death in an apartment on 57th Street near Ninth Avenue. A machete and scissors were taken from the apartment by police as evidence. 

"A crazed man turned a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home into a slaughterhouse late Saturday, leaving a 37-year-old mom and her four young children stabbed to death," reports the New York Post. "A 25-year-old suspect - preliminarily identified as the children’s mentally troubled older cousin - was arrested after being subdued at the scene, his feet bare and soaked in blood."

"The toddler and two girls....were already dead from their wounds when paramedics arrived just after 11 p.m.," reports New York Daily News. The mother and [a] boy were taken to local hospitals, "but doctors were unable to save them, officials said."

Police released the five victims' names on Sunday: 37-year-old Qiao Zhen Li and her children, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo, 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 1-year-old William Zhuo.

Nobody has yet called for a national discussion about knife or blade control. There have been no calls in the past for tighter controls on how the mentally ill obtain sharp objects such as steak knives, machetes, ice picks and other potentially dangerous non-guns things.

Update 2: Witness Says Sparks Middle School Shooter Wore School Uniform

HERO: Teacher Michael Landsberry
died while protecting students

October 21, 2013 - A teen aged gunman shot and killed a math teacher, wounded two 12-year old male students at Sparks Middle School in Nevada around 7:15 this morning. The "gunman," a 12-year old 7th grader at the school, then fatally shot himself with his 9-millimeter Ruger seminautomatic handgun.

Update: The teacher killed in the attack was Michael Landsberry, 45, a former US Marine and member of the Nevada Air National Guard. He is survived by his wife and two step-daughters. More...

Update, Oct. 25: The 12-year old shooter has been identified as Jose Reyes. Tthe city of Sparks released the 12-year-old boy’s name on Thursday afternoon (Oct. 24). "The Reno Gazette-Journal had requested the name Tuesday after Sparks police said in a news conference they would not release it," reports the Reno Gazette-Journal. "The RGJ editorial board called on Sparks to release the name, arguing that Sparks police needed to follow the state’s public records laws."

The two wounded students were taken to Renown Regional Medical Center in critical condition. One is out of surgery and the other is doing well, reports Associated Press.

A witness to the Sparks Middle School shooting, 13-year old Kyle Nucum, describes the shooting in this video:

“We heard a pop, like a loud pop, and everybody was screaming and the teacher came to investigate,” Nucum told RGJ Media this morning. “I thought it was a firecracker at first, but the student was pointing a gun at the teacher after the teacher told him to put it down, and the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away. And we ran across the field to get somewhere safe and while we were running we heard about four or five more shots and we just got somewhere safe. This lady let us into her house.”

Another student who saw the shooting said, “I heard him saying, ‘Why you people making fun of me, why you laughing at me.’” More at RGJ.com...

Classes at Spark Middle School have been cancelled for the rest of the week. Sparks is located just east of Reno (see map).

Also See:

• Timeline for Sparks Middle School shooting  - Reno Gazette-Journal
• Sparks students say school shooter may have been bullied LA Times
• Shooting at middle school in Sparks, Nev.: Slain teacher identified LA Times
• Gang Members Arrested For Beating 12-year-old Boy - KTVN
• How an Armed Assistant Principal Stopped a School Shooter - Chicago News Bench

Obama Supporter Mocks the Mentally Ill

Ah, gad, an email from local lunatic "RogersParkPlace" (RPP). He/she/it is one of those people who feels very brave while anonymously lurking and sniping in the comments of blogs and other web sites. If he/she/it had any testicular virility, he/she/it would use his/her/its real name. But that's a distraction. Let's get to the highly amusing email sent to The Bench today: You are officially no longer a journalist. Your insane rantings about Obama have done nothing but prove you have lost touch with reality, will print anything that anyone tells you and will, with any luck, soon be institutionalized. Will it be your first time in such a facility? You know. For a little rest? Now, let's break it down: "You are officially no longer a journalist," he/she/it wrote. News flash: In the United States, there is no official status for journalists, and RogersParkPlace certainly is in no position to grant or revoke such a status even it existed. As an Obama supporter and a Leftist, RogersParkPlace is comfortable with the notion of an official status for journalists and, by extension I suppose, writers in general. This fits well with the way Obama has been intimidating journalists nationwide. "Your insane rantings about Obama have done nothing but prove you have lost touch with reality, will print anything that anyone tells you..." Well, I printed what you told me. (Hmmm, perhaps I am a little bit crazy.) In fact, I don't publish everything I am told about Obama. I have rejected many "news" stories about Obama because, after checking them out, I found them to be untrue or from less than reliable sources. So, RPP, that is untrue. "...and will, with any luck, soon be institutionalized. Will it be your first time in such a facility? You know. For a little rest?" How kind, how compassionate of RPP, a "Liberal," to wish me such a fate. Gee, RPP, I wouldn't wish that on you, and I'm the mean conservative. You seem to be saying that mental illness is to be shunned, mocked, looked down upon. Now, how does that fit with your Liberal world view? It would, by the way, be my first time, but you seem to imply that people who have been institutionalized are bad in some way. Shame on you. Your view fits in with that of the Soviet Union and other places, where dissenters were locked up in mental institutions. Of course, since you are an Obama supporter and a Leftist, that doesn't surprise me. Thanks for your email, Comrade RogersParkPlace. If Obama wins on Tuesday, will you get a job with his new Department of Politically Correct Thought? Now, enjoy this little video:

Unstable Little Man Defends Obama

See, folks, there's straight reporting and there's opinion pieces. Why is it so difficult for y'all to understand that? Goodness, I wrote a post that's obviously an expression of my opinion, and obviously tongue-in-cheek, and some coward who is afraid to let us all know her real name writes a loony rant about "journalism." Yipes! Hey, you want to disagree with my opinion, that's fine. But for God's sake, don't get upset about an obvious piece of satire because you're so stupid that you think it's presented as "journalism!" From: "RogersParkPlace" To: rogersparkbench And how the heck is your childish rant about Obama any form of journalism? It sounds more like the angry raving of an unstable little man! Journalism? I don't think so RELATED: Nutbag Defends Morseland Management

NIU Shooter Stayed in Rogers Park

What is it about Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, especially the 49th Ward? We're the Fifth Bloggiest in the nation. We're [arguably] the most diverse in the nation. We are [inarguably] one of the strangest hoods in the USA. We have more than our share of weirdness. For example: Joe Moore, the alderman who fights foie gras. Jay R. Grodner, the attorney who vandalized a US Marine's car. The recent Invisible Ink voting incident. And now, Stephen Kazmierczak, the nutbag killer who shot up an auditorium full of students at NIU. RELATED: The Online Life of NIU Killer Stephen Kazmierczak - Waxy.org