MOUNTAIN VIEW — Police believe an Oakland man, fearful of being tracked by Google, launched a series of attacks on Google’s company headquarters, including shooting out office windows and tossing Molotov cocktails at a streetview vehicle.
Federal prosecutors charged Raul Murillo Diaz, 30, with a single count of arson in a May 19 attack, according to an affidavit filed last week in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Investigators are seeking more information from Diaz about two other recent attacks, including the torching of a self-driving car.
Mountain View police arrested Diaz June 30 after a traffic stop near Google headquarters. Police said they found a weapons case and the makings of a pipe bomb in Diaz’s Volkswagen SUV, according to the affidavit.
Diaz later told officers that “he felt Google was watching him and that made him upset,” according to the sworn statement. Diaz also said he kept journals that tracked when he felt Google was watching him. Diaz is being held without bail at Santa Clara County Jail.
Messages left Monday at the U.S. attorney’s office in San Jose and Mountain View police were not returned.
Police say the Google campus was attacked three times in May and June.
At around 11 p.m. May 19, a Google employee spotted a man throwing two beer bottles at a street view vehicle — one of a fleet that captures images on streets around the world — in the parking lot on Salado Drive. Police found two broken bottles apparently used as Molotov cocktails. The vehicle was not damaged, although the ground was scorched.
A few weeks later, at 10:30 p.m. June 4, Mountain View police responded to reports of a shooting at a different Google building on Garcia Avenue. Police discovered broken glass and five holes in the windows. Company security videos indicated that the same SUV was present in both attacks, according to the affidavit.
And in the early morning hours of June 10, security cameras captured a man in a dark hoodie carrying a squirt gun, which police believe held gasoline or other flammable liquid. Emergency responders found one of Google’s self-driving cars engulfed in flames, according to the affidavit. A spokesman for Google on Monday said a self-driving car was not involved. The car was destroyed.
Contact Louis Hansen 408-920-5043. Follow him at Twitter.com/HansenLouis.
