The family of Craig Deleeuw Robertson issued a statement defending him after the FBI killed the 75-year-old following multiple social media posts threatening President Joe Biden.
The FBI said he was armed when they raided his home in Provo, Utah, executing a search warrant.
He wrote on Facebook earlier this week that he was planning to clean “the dust off the M24 sniper rifle” because Biden was visiting Utah.
In one post, he wrote, “Perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist.”
Other social media posts featured Robertson, who called himself a MAGA Republican, saying that “the time is right for a presidential assassination or two” while referencing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
We need to know how this went down, however. Mr. Robertson was elderly and handicapped, and as far as being armed, that’s legal in Utah. It should be legal everywhere.
In a statement provided on Thursday to Salt Lake City CBC affiliate KUTV, Robertson’s family said he was a “good and decent man” who was only exercising his “First Amendment right to free speech.”
The full statement follows below:
“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.”
Here is a photo of Craig Robertson in Provo, a carpenter, who had recently organized a group of volunteers to build a ramp for a disabled neighbor pic.twitter.com/CJjryrRgOU
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 10, 2023
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