-
Was Byron Williams San Francisco-bound?
Oakland Police are reporting that
Byron Williams, the man charged with triggering the massive Sunday gun battle on Highway 580, was traveling to San Francisco to kill people at the ACLU and
Tides, a progressive San Francisco organization providing millions in grants to nonprofits.
Tides' senior vice president, China Brotsky, told
SF Weekly she was "absolutely baffled." She said her organization would have a statement to release to the public within the hour. Calls to the ACLU were shunted to the organization's communications director and not immediately returned.
Williams is a two-time convicted felon with a lengthy criminal past and an apparent hatred of liberal activists. It is unclear if he has had any prior contact with Tides or the ACLU -- or how he chose the organizations, especially Tides, as his alleged targets.
Tides, which has an office in the Presidio and in New York, is a 34-year-old organization that describes itself as a "values based infrastructure for progressive nonprofit work." It has supported causes ranging from gay rights to immigration rights to climate change to youth arts. According to the most recent financial report available on its website, Tides in 2008 made 3,732 grants for $108 million.
If Williams' mother was telling the truth when she described her son's animus for "liberals" and fear of "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda
items," one can only imagine how he'd react to the areas on which Tides spent its vast resources:
click to enlarge
-
Click on chart for larger version
After motoring from his hometown of Groveland, near Yosemite, Williams was pulled over by Highway Patrol officers at around midnight on Saturday/Sunday on I-580 in Oakland. He had reportedly been speeding and weaving and was suspected of drunk driving. Donning a suit of body armor, he engaged the CHP officers in a gunfight, eventually taking on 10 troopers. He was shot repeatedly; despite his body armor six shots found the mark. Two CHP officers were injured by flying debris.
After two days in Highland Hospital, he was
today arraigned for attempted murder in Alameda County. Had he not been stopped, CHP officials believe he was
well-armed enough to kill at least 50 people.
Update, 4:40 p.m.: Tides communication director Christine Coleman confirmed that Williams had never phoned, e-mailed, or contacted the organization in any way. "We have never heard of this man before," she says. This is the first purported instance of harassment -- let alone intent to kill and maim people -- directed at Tides in its 14 years in the Presidio, she says.
Tides released the following statement:
It is with great dismay that we have learned that Tides Foundation was a potential target of a man who was shot and arrested on 580 over the weekend. We had never heard of this man before. We cannot speculate about the incident while the investigation is going on. You will need to contact the Oakland Police Department for more information. Our staff is our prime concern in this matter and we have taken additional security measures.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF
and @SFWeekly
