Nasim Najafi Aghdam, a 39-year-old woman from San Diego, traveled to YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California and began shooting random YouTube employees with a 9mm handgun. She wounded three people before turning her weapon on herself. One of her victims remains in critical condition.
Aghdam was reportedly upset with how YouTube was “filtering” her videos so that nobody was seeing them. Evidently, she was echoing many of the same complaints made by Steven Williams, the man who plays Boogie2988 on YouTube, in a recent video. Boogie2988 has since removed his video, claiming it was out of respect for the people harmed yesterday.
My guess his motivation for removing the video has more to do with self-preservation than respect or solidarity for anyone at YouTube. He complained about the same things Nasim Najafi Aghdam complained about.
Was the shooter a subscriber to Boogie2988’s channel? I know from interacting with a few of his fans in the Boogie2988 comment section on YouTube, he has more than his fair share of weirdo fans. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest of the shooter was a regular viewer of Boogie2988’s content.
Maybe that is something law enforcement will look into. Not that it would really matter. Even if she did watch his videos, it doesn’t make Steven Williams in any way responsible for Aghdam’s actions.