Craig Robertson, the 75-year-old Utah man who was fatally shot Wednesday at his home by the FBI for allegedly making online threats against President Joe Biden, was a “good and decent man” who “loved this country with all his heart,” according to a statement released by his family on Thursday.
“We, the family of Craig Deeluew Robertson, are shocked and devastated by the senseless and tragic killing of our beloved father and brother,” the statement, provided to 2News, reads, “and we fervently mourn the loss of a good and decent man.”
As BizPac Review reported, FBI agents descended on Robertson’s Provo, Utah, residence ahead of President Biden’s visit to Salt Lake City.
Conservatives feel unsafe after facts on FBI killing Utah man accused of threatening Joe Biden run low https://t.co/bl1uBgLjnV via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) August 10, 2023
A federal complaint against Robertson was filed on Monday after, prosecutors claim, he posted on social media, “I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghille suit and cleaning the dust off the m24 sniper rifle. welcom, buffoon-in-chief!”
He had also allegedly made threats against Vice President Kamala Harris and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and dared “demented weasel” Attorney General Merrick Garland to “send your FBI Swat Team to my house.”
“You won’t,” Robertson allegedly posted, “because I fight back against cowards!!!”
Robertson owned weapons, authorities said, and was charged with interstate threats, influencing, impeding, and retaliating against federal law enforcement officers by threat, and threats against the president.
But Robertson’s family paints a very different picture of the man they loved:
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,” the family stated. “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.”
Robertson’s “intemperate” posts on social media, they said, was him exercising “his First Amendment right to free speech” — the only thing he, in his condition, could do to protest against what he saw as an unjust 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,” the family said. “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.”
The grieving family stressed that they held no “animosity” toward the agents who confronted Robertson at his home.
“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,” they said. “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.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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