FBI Kills Elderly Man Who Threatened Biden Online

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

PROVO, USA (Worthy News) – An elderly armed man, described as “frail” by neighbors, has been shot and killed by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after making online threats against U.S. President Joe Biden, officials said.

Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City in the U.S. State of Utah, when the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m., the FBI said Wednesday.

The shooting of the 74-year-old came amid a fierce debate in the United States about social media expressions perceived as threatening to those in power and other public figures.

Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah, and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and begin “cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle.”

The post came after months of graphic online threats against several public figures, according to court documents.

Robertson referred to himself as a “MAGA Trumper,” a reference to former President Donald J. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Investigators said he also posted “threats” against top law enforcement officials overseeing court cases against Trump.

However, neighbors and other townsfolk described him as a frail old man who walked with the aid of a hand-carved stick and had served at the local church ward.

CARRYING GUNS

Though he regularly carried guns and reportedly has about 20 at home, they said he didn’t seem a threat.

“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 outside the church across from Robertson’s street.

Travis Lee Clark, who’s known Robertson for years from working at their churchward together, described Robertson as “a frail of health.”

Clark also called Robertson a masterful woodworker and an “established icon” in their community. Robertson propped himself on a wood walking stick he’d carved himself, added Clark, who was surprised he was considered a severe threat, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.

FBI agents came to Robertson’s house after the initial warning about him from the Truth Social media network in March. They reportedly found Robertson wearing a Trump cap and what one described in a search warrant affidavit as an “AR-15 style rifle lapel pin.”

An affidavit said he told them his initial threat was just “a dream” and demanded they only return with a warrant. In a Facebook post days later cited in the affidavit, he said, “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.’”

In another undated social media post cited in the document, Robertson wrote: “Hey FBI, you still monitoring my social media? Checking so I can have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again.”

ONLINE EXTREMISM

A post from July 21 unearthed by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism, reads, “If I really told you what I’d like to do to Joe Biden Facebook would censor me, and the FBI would pay me another visit.”

Rita Katz, SITE’s co-founder, said the social media posts attributed to Robertson show the challenges for law enforcement officials who must decide when speech rises to the level of an actual threat.

“Because you have the freedom of speech, it can be very difficult to tell what is allowed and what is not allowed,” she said.

President Biden, who was briefed about the shooting, was in the middle of a trip to the Western United States.

He flew to Salt Lake City after spending Wednesday in New Mexico, where he spoke at a factory that will produce wind towers, a move welcomed by a president fearful of climate change.

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