Family members of the man killed during an FBI operation this week are decrying what happened.
“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 family said in a statement after Mr. Robertson was fatally shot during the Aug. 9 operation in Provo, Utah.
FBI agents and other law enforcement officers were trying to serve arrest and search warrants at the home after reviewing social media posts in which Mr. Robertson, 74, threatened President Joe Biden and other politicians, according to court documents and officials.
Video footage from the scene showed heavily armed officers outside of Mr. Robertson’s home before dawn shouting at him to open the door.
Jon Michael Ossola, who recorded the video, told The Epoch Times that about 20 officers were present and that they told Mr. Robertson to exit the home.
Mr. Robertson, said, responded by saying “I haven’t broken any federal laws.”
After gunshots rang out, Mr. Robertson, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was taken outside and declared dead.
The video did not capture the shooting and Mr. Ossola said he could not see exactly what unfolded.
The FBI has described what happened as an “agent-involved shooting” that took place around 6:15 a.m. local time. The shooting is being reviewed by the bureau’s Inspection Division, according to a spokesperson, who declined to provide more details.
‘Kind and Generous Person’
Family members said Mr. Robertson “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.”
They said he often used his woodworking skills to craft items for children of friends and neighbors, was active in his church, and was a lover of animals, reading, and hunting.
“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,” the family said.
“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.”
The family said they do not harbor animosity against the agents and officers who took part in the raid and asked people to respect their privacy as they come to terms with Mr. Robertson’s death.
By Zachary Stieber
