APTOS - One of the country's most influential anarchist internet activists was killed early Tuesday in a hail of gunfire when law officers tried to arrest him on a warrant accusing him of aggravated assault. Timothy C. May, 50, whose apocalyptic, anti-government internet postings were a major influence on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, was shot to death after May shot and critically wounded a Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputy who had tried to arrest him, officers said. Sandy Sandfort, a Bay Area lawyer and friend of May, said he didn't think the police operation was unjustified. "I think Tim just went nuts. He was looking for martyrdom anyway and swore he would never surrender," Sandfort said. "They had him dead to rights on the aggravated assault." "He had vowed that he would not be taken alive," said Tom McCombs, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service in Santa Cruz. A spokesman for a group that tracks anarchists said the shooting wasn't surprising given May's history. In addition to his postings, he was known within the anarchist movement for an influential document called the Cyphernomicon, in which he wrote about overthrowing governments. "For more than 3 1/2 years, he had been holed up in his house in Corralitos, threatening to kill police officers and federal agents," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "He was talked about as a guy who talked crazy and made a lot of threats. The reality is that people like him are frequently exceedingly dangerous."