SAN BRUNO, Calif.—An active shooting at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., left at least one person dead and several others injured Tuesday, law enforcement sources told The Times.
Lisa Kim, a spokeswoman for Stanford Medical Center, said at least four patients from the shooting were expected to be admitted at the medical center.
“We do not know their conditions,” she said.
Brent Andrew, a spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, said the hospital had “received several patients” and was expecting more.
Several YouTube employees sent tweets Tuesday afternoon, saying people were racing out of the company’s Cherry Avenue offices shortly after 1 p.m.
At least two people were reportedly struck by gunfire, according to a law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident. The shooter was described as a woman. So far authorities do not believe this was an act of terrorism and appears instead to have been a case of domestic or workplace violence — although the investigation has just begun.
Witnesses in the area said they saw dozens of firefighters and police officers descending on the area. Other witnesses said they saw police holding rifles and other weapons.
The first reports of a shooting came in to San Mateo County dispatchers before 1 p.m., according to recorded traffic posted online by Broadcastify.com.
“Shooter. Another party said they spotted someone with a gun. Suspect came from the back patio,” the dispatcher said, according to scanner traffic posted online. “Address is 901 Cherry Avenue. … Again we have a report of a subject with a gun, they heard seven or eight shots being fired. This would be from the YouTube building.”
As the reports began to flood dispatchers, a sergeant was heard on the radio taking the call. He told other officers responding or monitoring the situation “to wear their gear.”
Video from the scene showed people holding their hands over their heads as they left the building, which is located in a suburb south of San Francisco. An employee told the Los Angeles Times that three YouTube buildings — 900, 901 and 1000 Cherry Avenue — had been placed on lockdown.
Producers from YouTube tweeted that they believed there was an active shooter on the company’s campus. Some said they heard so many people running that they believed an earthquake had struck. Others described a gruesome scene.
“I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs,” Todd Sherman, a YouTube producer, wrote on Twitter. “Peaked around for threats and then we headed downstairs and out the front.”
Michelle Tam, a hostess at the Hashes & Brews restaurant about a block away from the company’s headquarters, said a swarm of police and fire vehicles drove into the area around 12:45 p.m.
“We see lots cops and firefighters,” Tam said. “We can’t see any people. It’s just a lot of trucks along the street at the moment.”
Tam said three YouTube employees came into the restaurant appearing visibly shaken.
“They came in from a back door,” she said. “They sat down at a table. They were in a daze. One guy, there was a little blood on his head.”
One employee had a partial fragment of a bullet in her shoe, Tam said.
At another nearby business, roughly two dozen customers barricaded themselves inside Nueve restaurant around 1 p.m., when authorities told them to “stay far away from YouTube,” bartender Carlos Gutierrez told a reporter over the phone.
“Is this really happening, or is it a false alarm?” Gutierrez wondered aloud as he and others huddled near the bar.
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