An Oakland, Calif., man allegedly launched a series of attacks on a Google Streetview car and the company’s Headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
Federal prosecutors have charged Raul Murillo Diaz, 30, with a single count of arson, but police also believe he’s responsible for additional attacks at Google’s buildings in the Mountain View area, according to Mercury News.
According to a federal affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., Diaz launched multiple Molotov cocktails at a Google Streetview car parked outside of a Google building May 19 in Mountain View. Google Streetview vehicles are used to capture 360 images for Google maps, which allows users to view streets and areas from a first person perspective.
Police are seeking information about two additional attacks on Google, asserting that the same vehicle was present in all three attacks. On June 4, a shooting occurred at a separate Google building, located half of a mile away, in which bullets went through the windows of the building. Detectives discovered that the same vehicle from the May 19 attack was used to carry out the shooting.
A third incident June 10 resulted in the total loss of a Google Streetview car at a facility a half of a mile away from the initial May 19 attack. Surveillance footage appeared to show the same vehicle on the scene, with a man lighting the car on fire.
On June 30, Mountain View Police and Googles private security arrested Diaz after complaints of a suspicious car (that matched the SUV description in the attacks). Police found an incomplete pipe bomb in Diaz’s car that only needed accelerant to become a fully functioning explosive.
According to the Affidavit, Diaz admitted to the two arsons and the shooting into a Google building. He also asserted that he was planning a fourth attack on the night that officers arrested him.
Diaz stated that the motivation behind the attack was because he was upset that Google was supposedly watching him. He kept a journal of all the times he thought that Google was surveilling him, and he mentioned Google, Facebook and Larry Page multiple times during interviews with police.
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