An elderly Utah man who allegedly threatened to assassinate President Joe Biden and other elected officials was shot and killed by the FBI at his home in Provo last week.
The shooting occurred around 6:15 a.m. on August 9, but no other details have been released about what prompted the FBI agents to kill 74-year-old Craig Deleeuw Robertson other than that he was allegedly armed, according to The Associated Press.
Robertson heard that Biden was coming to Utah that day and had posted about “cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle” on social media.
Previous posts by Robertson indicated that he had a long-range sniper rifle, among other weapons. He was charged last Tuesday for making threats against the president and against the FBI agents who were investigating him. The shooting occurred when the FBI was trying to serve his arrest warrant.
“The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” Robertson posted in September of 2022.
He also threatened other political figures, like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Writing about Bragg on Truth Social back in March, Robertson said that he wanted to “put a nice hole in his forehead,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit, the AP reported.
Robertson reportedly referred to himself as a “MAGA Trumper.” His neighbors said he was frail and walked with a cane.
“There’s no way that he was driving from here to Salt Lake City, setting up a rifle and taking a shot at the president — 100% no way,” said neighbor Andrew Maunder, speaking with the AP.
In a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, Robertson’s family said they were “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.”
Robertson’s family went on to note that they held “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.”
This was not the first time FBI agents came to Robertson’s house. Agents interviewed him after his post about Bragg. Robertson reportedly claimed the post was only “a dream” and that the agents should come back with a warrant.
Days later, he posted on Facebook about the encounter.
“To my friends in the Federal Bureau of Idiots: I know you’re reading this and you have no idea how close your agents came to ‘violent eradication,'” the AP reported.
In another post referred to in his arrest warrant affidavit, he wrote, “Hey FBI, you still monitoring my social media? Checking so I can have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again.”
Despite the posts, Robertson’s neighbor did not believe the elderly man posed any real threat.
“I think deep down, he was just a cranky old guy who was harmless,” said Maunder, according to the SLT.