FBI agents shot and killed 75-year-old Craig Robertson on Wednesday after he allegedly pointed a gun at them during a pre-dawn raid on his Provo, Utah home.
Robertson had landed on the FBI's radar for social media posts he made, including one in which the FBI said he threatened to assassinate Joe Biden.
“I hear Biden is coming to Utah,” Robertson wrote in a post on Sunday. “Digging out my old ghille suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle. Welcome, Buffoon-in-chief!”
A neighbor, Andrew Maunder, told The Associated Press: “There’s no way that he was driving from here to Salt Lake City (45 miles), setting up a rifle and taking a shot at the president — 100% no way.”
Robertson weighed over 300 pounds and was semi-mobile, relying on a cane to walk, neighbors said.
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck noted: "I'm seeing the government do things I've never seen in my 40+ years of broadcasting. People have mailed credible threats to presidents for years. They've (rightly) been investigated for it, but I've never seen the FBI gun anybody down for it. Ever. This is not normal."
Jack Posobiec of Human Events said in a Telegram post: "Look at their reaction. The Left wants what happened to Craig Robertson and Ashli Babbitt to happen to every Trump supporter. ... It's sure a good thing no one on the Left has ever posted death threats about Donald Trump. ..."
Beck and Posobiec are among many commentators, neighbors, and others who are asking why the FBI took such extreme measures against Robertson.
“I just can’t believe that this man warranted that kind of response,” Travis Clark, who lives on the same street where Robertson's home is, told the Deseret News.
Another local, Connor Bunch, told the New York Post that the entire neighborhood was shocked with how the events unfolded one day before Biden visited the state, describing Robertson as a “teddy bear” who took care of his blind son, Sean, who is in his 50s.
Bunch said he heard authorities knock on Robertson’s door the day before the raid, but he turned them away because they didn’t have a warrant.
“I don’t think he was even given a chance to even see a warrant when they went in and raided his house,” Bunch said. “That was them serving the warrant but in the most spectacular way. It just seems like a tremendously unnecessary display of force.”
Locals described the incident on Wednesday as a "hail of bullets" at Robertson's home in Provo. Robertson was covered in a sheet and dragged out of the house and bled out on the sidewalk outside his home, according to local reports.
Revolver News noted: "The pressing question is, why would the FBI go to such extreme measures to apprehend a semi-mobile elderly man in his 70s, who relied on a cane, by forcefully breaking down his door at 6:00 a.m.? Various theories are floating around about this incident. One popular theory is that Craig was suddenly awoken in the early hours of the morning, perhaps thinking he was in the midst of a home invasion and in a bid to protect himself, he lost his life when he was fatally shot by the FBI."
Why pick a senior citizen up peacefully, outside, in daylight when you can execute a pre-dawn, tactical breach and kill the man in his own living room.
It’s an “object lesson,” a demonstration of power. States need to start passing laws against this type of federal action, we… https://t.co/cPL7EeEc8Z — TimOnPoint (@TimOnPoint) August 10, 2023
There has been no claim made that this individual fired on FBI agents, or even that he was armed at the time of the fatal altercation today. Apparently a giant squad of militarized personnel was incapable of apprehending a 75 year old man without gunning him down on his doorstep https://t.co/QZqM6VXiCN pic.twitter.com/BN7Ih7lIBZ
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 9, 2023
Robertson's family released the following statement:
We, the family of Craig Deeluew Robertson, are shocked and devastated by the senseless and tragic killing of our beloved father and brother, and we fervently mourn the loss of a good and decent man.
The Craig Robertson we knew was a kind and generous person who was always willing to assist another in need, even when advanced age, limited mobility, and other physical challenges made it more difficult and painful for him to do so.
He often used his expert woodworking skills to craft beautiful and creative items for others, including toys such as sleighs, rocking horses, and bubble gum dispensers for the children of friends and neighbors at Christmas time. He was active in his local church congregation and loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart.
He was a devoted dog lover all his life, and he lavished his animals with love and affection. He was a lover of history and an avid reader of every kind of book. In his younger years, he was a sportsman and hunter.
He was a firearm enthusiast, collector and gunsmith, who staunchly supported the constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms for the purposes of providing food and protection for his family and home.
As a safety inspector in the steel industry, he worked diligently and conscientiously to safeguard the lives and well-being of untold thousands who would use, and benefit from, the numerous industrial and public works projects he was responsible for during the course of a decades-long career.
Craig loved this country with all his heart. He saw it as a God-inspired and God-blessed land of liberty. He was understandably frustrated and distraught by the present and on-going erosions to our constitutionally protected freedoms and the rights of free citizens wrought by what he, and many others in this nation, observed to be a corrupt and overreaching government.
As an elderly–and largely homebound–man, there was very little he could do but exercise his First Amendment right to free speech and voice his protest in what has become the public square of our age–the internet and social media. Though his statements were intemperate at times, he has never, and would never, commit any act of violence against another human being over a political or philosophical disagreement.
As our family processes the grief and pain of our loss, we would have it be known that we hold no personal animosity towards those individuals who took part in the ill-fated events of the morning of August 9, 2023, which resulted in Craig’s death.
We ask that the media and public respect our family members' privacy and give us the time and space needed to come to terms with the sad tragedy of these events.
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