A parolee hellbent on killing San Francisco, or something, began a shootout with CHP officers Saturday night in Oakland that shut down I-580 through most of Sunday. The freeway was shut down in both directions near the Grand Avenue exit in Oakland just after midnight Saturday night, causing massive traffic delays for a whole lot of people. (Scroll down for some amateur video footage of the scene on the freeway just after the shootout -- above, some video shot by someone near Oakland Ave and Harrison, featuring audio of the shootout.) The westbound lanes of the freeway remained closed for most of Sunday, with only the two left-hand lanes reopening at 7 p.m.

At the center of all this was one Byron Christopher Williams, aged 45, a man with a serious criminal record and some apparent anti-left-wing and anti-government rage. CHP pulled Williams over Saturday night after he had been speeding and weaving in and out of lanes down the freeway. Being a parolee with two felony arrests already on his record, Williams almost immediately began open-firing on the officers, who returned fire and called for backup. Williams was suited up with body armor, however, and -- get this -- he had emptied his mother's gun cabinet before leaving on his little trip, and was armed with a high-powered hunting rifle as well as a handgun, a shotgun, a small explosive device of some kind, and a few other things. A CHP spokesman told the press it was clear that Williams intended to harm someone or some group of people, and he was about 12 minutes from downtown San Francisco where he was stopped.

Williams lives next door to his mother in Tuolumne County, in a town near the west gate of Yosemite called Groveland. The Chron caught up with his mother, Janice Williams, who was herself apparently preparing for "a revolution," and therefore had all the guns.