Tech community shaken by YouTube HQ shooting

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KTVU) - Tuesday’s shooting at YouTube is sending shockwaves through the tech community as well as an outpouring of support. Google owns YouTube. Google’s CEO calls the shooting a horrific act of violence. Google and YouTube are vowing to work with their employees to heal from this tragedy.

SkyFox captured employees leaving in droves, patted down by authorities after a woman opens fire. Some employees took to Twitter.

Vadim Lavrusik wrote, “Active shooter at YouTube. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.”

“Today it feels like the entire community of YouTube and all of their employees were victims of this crime,” said YouTube Spokesman Chris Dale. 

Google bought the popular video sharing website in 2006. YouTube operates as one of its subsidiaries.

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement, “It is with great sadness that I can tell you four people were injured in this horrific act of violence. We are doing everything we can to support them and their families at this time."

Others in the tech industry are offering their thoughts including Apple CEO Tim Cook who tweeted, “From everyone at Apple, we send our sympathy to the team at YouTube and Google, especially the victims and their families.”

“Another day, another shooting,” said Thomas Plante, a Santa Clara University psychology professor. “I think that's the sad tragic reality.”

Plante said gun violence is a public health problem where no one is immune.

“Now, that it's happened at YouTube, if I was a tech worker at Google or Apple or Oracle or Cisco or any of these companies, I’d say could this happen to me and could it happen in my company and the answer is probably yes it can,” said Plante.

“It hits home in a really hard way for a lot of tech people because they felt very safe,” said Bob O’Donnell of Technalysis Research. “Silicon Valley has been perceived as being very safe.”

O’Donnell can't recall the last time a mass shooting happened on a tech campus. He said the shooting serves as a wake-up call.

“You can believe that tomorrow if not today companies are making new plans for how to deal with these kinds of issues,” said O’Donnell.

Besides Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, Amazon and Twitter's CEOs also expressed their support. Google said it's providing a helpline for their employees.