Inside the mind of a man involved in 580 shootout

OAKLAND, CA (KGO) -- There is new information about a man charged for a shoot-out with the highway patrol on 580 in Oakland in July. The man says he hoped to start a revolution by killing liberal activists and ABC7 obtained tapes of a jailhouse interview with Byron Williams.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, July 18th, Williams was injured during a shootout with the CHP on Interstate 580 in Oakland.

Officers say they made a traffic stop after watching Williams weave through lanes at excessive speeds. Williams was wearing body armor and had an arsenal of weapons in his car.

The gunfire exchange ripped through the metal and glass of CHP cars.

In the jailhouse interview, Williams says he wasn't speeding and that he fired back in self defense.

"I have no intention of confrontation with police. That's a misconception that my intent was to come down to the bay area and get in fights with police," he said.

The CHP used a robot to retrieve evidence. Williams says it did not contain a hit list, only examples he had collected of corruption in government and business.

"I believe that the entrenchment and corruption is so deep, that these special interests and the progressive two-sided two twin face God of Babylon is going to prevail," he said.

Williams at first admits he was on a mission to kill people at two non-profits in San Francisco -- the ACLU and the Tides Foundation, a group that promotes progressive social changes.

The plan was to wait outside the offices until Monday morning when workers would arrive. He says Tides is funded by liberal philanthropist George Soros.

"Retribution was called for with Tides or anyone working for George Soros by taking out 11 people," Williams said.

Eleven murders to avenge the 11 workers killed in the BP oil explosion in the Gulf last April, but in a second interview a week later, Williams wavered.

"It may or may not have happened. That was two days away. Of course, there's a good chance that sitting around on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of a city that i don't really know very well, I may have just decided to go home," he said.

Williams now has regrets, but not because of what he was planning to do.

"I regret it only because of the conditions I'm in and the pain that I've put on my mother. But I am 100 percent convinced that we cannot beat the system of corruption," he said.

Williams is charged with several counts of attempted murder of police officers as well as other felony crimes.

Soro's Open Society foundation did not return our calls for a response and Tides Foundation referred us to its website which says: "This is a reminder of the intolerant climate that has been created by the demagogues and fear mongering pundits of the right wing."

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shooting, crime, CHP, oil spill, ACLU, east bay news, vic lee

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