Another (alleged) Domestic Terrorist

I-580 shootout suspect mad at left-wing politics

Bob Egelko,Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers

San Francisco Chronicle July 18, 2010 05:59 PM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Oakland -- A 45-year-old parolee, described by his mother as angry at left-wing politicians, opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers on an Oakland freeway early Sunday and was hit by return fire while wearing body armor, authorities said.

Williams' mother, Janice Williams of Groveland. . . said her son, who had been a carpenter and a cabinetmaker before his imprisonment, was angry about his unemployment and about "what's happening to our country."

Williams watched the news on television and was upset by "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items," his mother said.

Police found in the truck a suspicious object that prompted investigators to call a bomb squad to the scene. The object was detonated Sunday without mishap in the center divide of the freeway.

Law enforcement sources said Williams has a history showing he is both anti-government and anti-corporation, and against liberal causes.

The Alameda County Bomb Squad robot takes a handbook from the shootout suspect's truck on I-580 in Oakland on Sunday.

"There is no doubt in our mind, given the body armor and the extensive amount of ammunition he had, that he was on his way to do a very serious crime against either someone or a group of people," Cross said.

Among that evidence was a white three-ring binder recovered from the truck by a bomb squad robot. Scrawled by hand on the cover of the binder was the word, "California." Officials would not describe the contents of the binder.

(full story here)

Janice Williams [the suspect's mother] said she kept the guns because "eventually, I think we're going to be caught up in a revolution." But she said she had told her son many times that "he didn't have to be on the front lines."

She said she had no explanation for his actions.

Really? I can think of one. Being raised by a paranoid lunatic, maybe?