YouTube shooter's family thought she could 'never hurt one ant'

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ABCNews.com(MENIFEE, Calif.) — Family members of Nasim Aghdam, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting three people and injuring a fourth near YouTube’s headquarters in California on Tuesday, told ABC News they were stunned, and that they had thought, “she never hurt one ant.”

Aghdam’s parents, Ismail and Fauria, and her brother, Sean, told ABC News’ Matt Gutman that Nasim’s behavior was out of character, that she wasn’t previously violent. Nasim Aghdam had no criminal record.

When asked if Nasim was a terrorist or violent, Ismail said, “No.” He also didn’t know she owned a gun. Law enforcement sources tell ABC News she purchased the gun in San Diego in January, and didn’t appear to have much experience with weapons.

The family said Nasim was upset with recent changes to YouTube that decreased money she earned from posting videos to the website.

Fauria Aghdam broke down in tears during the interview, as Thursday would have been Nasim’s 39th birthday.

Ismail and Fauria filed a missing persons report last weekend when Nasim disappeared. Police found her sleeping in her car around 2 a.m. on the day of the shooting.

Her brother, Sean, 41, told police he was worried she might be up to something.

Authorities told the family they would “keep an eye on her,” but meant that colloquially because it would have been impractical, possibly inappropriate, or even a civil rights violation, to track someone who hadn’t committed a crime.

The brother said he was so concerned that he drove to San Francisco on the morning of the shooting to find her and was almost there when the family was notified of the shooting. Sean Aghdam immediately knew it was Nasim and turned back.

He said his sister had been obsessed with YouTube and that it came up in nearly every conversation with her.

“Right now,” father Ismail Aghdam told Gutman, “I [was] thinking she never hurt one ant, how [did] she shoot people? Right now I [was] thinking that. How she did that? I don’t know.”

Asked what he may want to say to the victims, the father said he was sorry and that if he could he would give them a hug.

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