A local CBS affiliate in California has reported a potential active shooter at YouTube's headquarters. The headquarters are located in San Bruno, California.
Reports of the active shooter situation flooded Twitter Tuesday afternoon. The San Bruno police department also tweeted out instructions that directed civilians to stay away from the area, including a map showing an address associated with the video streaming company.
Shortly after reports of an active shooter on the YouTube campus circulated, several reporters from The Hollywood Reporter tweeted that they had confirmed the situation with the San Bruno police. Other witnesses tweeted that they were in nearby buildings, and that those buildings were placed on lockdown. The police department confirmed that it was responding to an active shooter in a tweet shortly after.
One Twitter user posted screenshots of a conversation allegedly between him and a person who was inside the building at the time. The texts in the screenshot described fire alarms going off and shouts about a shooter driving employees into a panic. Those who remained in the building were reportedly in a lockdown situation for an unknown amount of time.
Aside from eyewitness reports on social media and police confirmation of the active shooter situation, very few details were known as the situation continued to play out Tuesday afternoon. Video footage shared by CBS appeared to show armed officials entering the building in question at about 4:30 p.m. EST.
One YouTube employee tweeted that he and his coworkers were in a meeting when the floor began to rumble. At first, he said, he thought it was an earthquake, though after further investigation, it appeared to actually be from a mass amount of people running. He also described seeing what he believed to be blood dripping from a staircase and on the floor while he evacuated.
Other employees described barricading themselves inside rooms before ultimately being evacuated out of the building. Most witnesses tweeted that they knew very little about what was going on, other than hearing reports of shots having been fired on or near the tech company's campus.
As the afternoon continued, other videos and photos shared on Twitter by witnesses and various news outlets showed people in the building being led outside with their hands in the air, or being patted down by law enforcement on their way away from the area. One woman told local Fox affiliate KTVU that she heard several rounds of rapid fire go off, before it faded, "like it was going away."
As of approximately 4:50 p.m. EST, San Bruno City Manager Connie Jackson told KTVU that the situation was not affecting any other parts of the area, such as schools, for example, because there were no other public facilities nearby. She underscored that the situation was being handled by authorities, and told KTVU that she believed there was only one shooter involved.
By 5:15 p.m. EST, law enforcement indicated that the shooter may have been a woman. She was said to have died by the time that detail was released.
Initial reports indicated that between 3 and 5 people were brought to the hospital in the shooting's immediate aftermath. San Bruno Police told CBS that at least four victims were taken to the hospital with wounds from the shooting. Authorities did not immediately share any details about the reported victims, including their conditions or genders.
As the afternoon continued, most reports came from witnesses recounting what they saw either on social media or in on-the-ground interviews with broadcast reporters. Law enforcement were still actively working to disentangle the situation and clear the premises.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein responded to the shooting in a Tweet. "My stomach sinks with yet another active shooter alert," she wrote Tuesday afternoon. "I'm praying for the safety of everyone at YouTube headquarters."
