Sundar Pichai pledges support to employees and the community in the wake of the shooting at the YouTube HQ

Wednesday April 04, 2018 , 3 min Read

On the morning of April 3, there was a shooting incident at the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. The city received multiple 911 calls with people reporting the shots, reported CNN.

Police claim that at least three people were injured and the suspected shooter was found dead. It was business-as-usual at the popular video-sharing website’s headquarters when shots were heard. Many employees reported the shooting on Twitter or called 911. The police responded and the headquarters was evacuated, and Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO since 2014, was the last to leave the building.

In the wake of the shooting, both Susan and Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, YouTube’s parent company, took to Twitter to convey their reactions:

There are no words to describe the tragedy that occurred today. @SusanWojcicki & I are focused on supporting our employees & the @YouTube community through this difficult time together. Thank you to the police & first responders for their efforts, and to all for msgs of support.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) April 3, 2018

There are no words to describe how horrible it was to have an active shooter @YouTube today. Our deepest gratitude to law enforcement & first responders for their rapid response. Our hearts go out to all those injured & impacted today. We will come together to heal as a family.
— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) April 4, 2018

There is no doubt how shaken the employees would be at the moment, struggling to come to terms with the incident.

“I’m grateful to everyone inside and outside the company for the outpouring of support and best wishes. I am especially thankful to the first responders and our own security team who acted so quickly to keep people safe,” shared Sundar in a reassuring note to all the employees, where he spoke about the incident. He mentioned four people have been injured in the shooting, and the company is doing everything to help them.

In the same note, he thanked everyone and also emphasised that the company will continue to stand by and provide continued support.

“I know a lot of you are in shock right now. Over the coming days, we will continue to provide support to help everyone in our Google family heal from this unimaginable tragedy.”

He also called for everyone to come together to support Susan and the YouTube team. Messages of support have also come in from other American leaders such as Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi. The next few days are going to be challenging for the YouTube team as they reorganise and return to work. Our thoughts and wishes are with them.