The family of Craig Deleeuw Robertson has issued a statement in his defense after the FBI killed the 75-year-old following multiple social media posts threatening President Joe Biden.
Robertson was killed on Wednesday as the FBI was executing a search warrant on his home in Provo, Utah. Court documents reviewed by Newsweek state that he had posted on Facebook earlier this week that he was planning to clean "the dust off the M24 sniper rifle" because Biden was visiting Utah.
Other social media posts featured Robertson, a registered Republican who expressed support for former President Donald Trump, saying that "the time is right for a presidential assassination or two" while referencing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
As recently as Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, Robertson wrote that "perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist."
Robertson's death outraged conservatives who claimed on social media the killing was unjustified. However, an Associated Press report citing two law enforcement sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity claims that Robertson was armed at the time of the shooting. The FBI said that the incident is under review.
In a statement provided on Thursday to Salt Lake City CBC affiliate KUTV, Robertson's family said that 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."
The FBI declined Newsweek's request for comment on the family's statement.
While political criticism is considered free speech under the First Amendment, speech that includes threats of death may instead be legally known as "true threats," which are not considered protected speech.
A 2003 decision by the Supreme Court defined "true threats" as "statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals."
In June, a 7-2 Supreme Court ruling further clarified that "a mental state of recklessness" when making threats of violence is sufficient for them to count as "true threats."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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