Police in Mountain View, California continue to say they did everything by the book when it came to dealing with suspected shooter Nasim Aghdam. To support that stance, they released body-cam footage on Friday from when officers approached her just hours before she allegedly opened fire at YouTube headquarters.
“Based on our officers’ interaction with Aghdam, including the fact that she had answered all of our questions cooperatively and thoroughly, there was no legal reason for us to remain on scene questioning her,” cops said in a statement. “Shortly after the recording ended, our officer called Aghdam’s family in San Diego to inform them that she had been found.”
The Mountain View Police Department said they were able to release the footage after the San Bruno PD, which is looking into the shooting, said they no longer needed it for their probe.
The MVPD said an officers patrolling a parking lot linked a vehicle license plate to a missing person’s report on the 38-year-old Aghdam. He and another officer questioned he as to why she was considered “at-risk” in the missing persons report.
Here’s how the authorities phrased it:
After knocking on her window and waking Aghdam, our officers notified Aghdam that she had been reported missing out of the San Diego area, and they learn from Aghdam that she had left her family as she and her family members were not getting along. Our officers ask for identification, which Aghdam provides. Our officers again ask why she decided to leave, and Aghdam again states they were not getting along and that they were having issues.
She said she left her phone in San Diego, and wanted to start a new life. The MVPD statement said that after it was all said and done, they had no legal reason to remain at the scene to talk to her. Officers said they then spoke to her father to say she was fine. An hour later, the father called police back to suggest his daughter was in the area because she was angry about YouTube affecting her vegan channel [headquarters are in nearby San Bruno], but cops claim he never brought up concerns about the possibility she might commit violence to herself and others. They is no copy of the phone call, officers said, because to record such a thing would require a legit investigative reason.
San Bruno cops said Nasim Aghdam opened fire at YouTube headquarters on April 3, injuring three people. She was found dead from what seemed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A police spokesman told Law&Crime on Friday that the investigation remains ongoing.
[Screengrab via Mountain View Police Department]