A clearer picture is emerging of the 75-year-old Utah man shot dead by the FBI after they tried to serve a search warrant hours before Joe Biden arrived in the state on a re-election campaign swing.
But questions are also being asked as to whether Craig Robertson was a “credible threat”, as the FBI claims, or as neighbors in Provo, Utah, have described to local media as a man harboring anti-government views who walked with a cane and liked to bluster and tell big stories, especially on social media.
Robertson had posted threats against the president, including asking whether Utah would become famous “as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist”. He’d also urged Utah residents to fire their guns into the air when Air Force One arrived, the Deseret News reported.
Late last month Robertson posted a message: “Hey FBI, you still monitoring my social media? Checking so I can be sure to have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again.”
On 6 August, three days before Biden’s visit, according to a 37-page federal complaint, Robertson posted: “I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghillie suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle.”
The legal complaint alleged interstate threats, threats against the president, and influencing, impeding and retaliating against federal law enforcement officers by threat, Robertson represented a “willful true threat to kill or cause injury to President Biden”.
He had also made threats against a whole host of familiar liberal politicians and officials including California governor Gavin Newsom, US attorney general Merrick Garland, Vice-President Kamala Harris and New York’s progressive district attorney Alvin Bragg.
CBS News reported it was told by law enforcement that the man had engaged FBI agents in a gunfight when they attempted to serve a warrant.
A neighbor told the Deseret News that he witnessed several unmarked vehicles block the street early on Wednesday and heard agents shout: “Craig Robertson, please come out with your hands up” before flash grenades were heard.
The neighbor, Cooper Robinson, said he then heard “shouting and some yelling, I couldn’t pick out what they were saying. But at some point I did hear five shots fired.”
Nyla Rollins, another neighbor, estimated that 50 agents were involved. “They called for my neighbor … to come out. And he’s like, ‘I’m not coming out [expletive].’ And then I didn’t hear anything after that,” Rollins told the News.
Questions are being asked if the FBI’s response was unduly harsh. “The FBI just came and shot an elderly man from my ward,” Travis Clark told the paper. “You know, a guy who’s nearly 80 years old, 300 pounds and can barely get around with a cane.”
Despite his anti-government rhetoric, Robertson was described as the “teddy bear” in the church congregation who was so immobilized that he’d drive 200 yards to church.
He was also known as a talented carpenter who built intricate coffee tables and rocking chairs. Despite being known as a gun collector he was not thought to carry at all times. “If he carried, we never knew about it,” Clark said to the Deseret News. “We all knew he had guns, that he collected guns ... but I mean, it’s Utah.”
Neighbors also said he’d make “off-color” political comments, but nothing that rose to threats of violence and political assassination.
“I just think he was an old kook shooting his mouth off,” Clark said. “There was nothing he ever did that would have made me think that he was either mentally or physically capable of doing anything. And anybody who knew him knew that.
“I just can’t believe that this man warranted that kind of response,” Clark added.
Robertson had previously been visited by agents at his home where he had rejected their concern about his online comments. “I said it was a dream!’ Robertson said, according to the federal complaint. “We’re done here! Don’t return without a warrant!’”
He later posted: “To my friends at the Federal Bureau of Idiots: I know you’re reading this and you have no idea how close your agents came to ‘bang.’” He claimed “the FBI tried to interfere with my free speech right in my driveway. My 45ACP was ready to smoke ’em!!!”
But that may have been bluster, implied Robinson, who said Robertson was a “big storyteller” who liked the attention of big stories.
“So a man that sits at home all day, doesn’t have much to do, if he’s on his phone and is involved in politics and has strong political opinions, I’m not surprised that he would make posts like that to try to receive attention,” Robinson told the Deseret News.
“I’m just hoping that the FBI has some more evidence besides Facebook posts to want to raid his house like they did,” he added.
