PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — One person is dead in Utah County after a shooting involving FBI agents early Wednesday morning in connection with an investigation into alleged threats against President Biden.
An FBI spokesperson told ABC4 that the agent-involved shooting happened around 6:15 a.m. Agents at the time were at a Provo residence attempting to serve an arrest and search warrant for a man identified as Craig Deleeuw Robertson.
ABC News confirmed the FBI raid was in connection with threats against President Biden, who is visiting Utah as part of a tour of three western states. Biden is expected to be in Utah on Wednesday afternoon and is scheduled to hold a press conference regarding the PACT Act on Thursday morning.
Officials told ABC News the investigation began in April and the U.S. Secret Service was notified by the FBI in June. In addition to allegedly making threatening posts, agents say Robertson suggested online he was making plans to take “physical action.”
According to court documents Robertson posted online saying, “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!” (The post was written here exactly as it appeared in capital letters.)
Through their investigation, the FBI said Robertson allegedly did own a sniper rifle and a ghillie suit. The investigation also found several posts on social media allegedly made by Robertson making several threats or calls for violent acts against the president and other officials dating back as far as September 2022.
One post allegedly reads, “The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” Another post shows a picture of what appears to be an assault rifle captioned, “My democrat eradicator!!! A gas operated ‘point-n-sh**t’ nail driver”
In a third post, Robertson posted called for “Death to Biden” three times after calling the president a “lying idiot” that was “destroying America.”
In addition to the alleged threats against President Biden, court documents show Robertson also allegedly threatened to travel to New York to “fulfill his dream” by killing New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The FBI investigation says at the time of the post, Bragg was overseeing the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump.
The threats made through social media were deemed credible by investigators.
When FBI investigators approached Robertson in March regarding his social media post threatening Bragg, Robertson said, “I said it was my dream,” and that he and the FBI were “done here,” according to court documents.
Robertson then allegedly made threats against the FBI on social media, asking if they were still monitoring his social media.
“Checking so I can be sure to have a loaded gun handy in case you drop by again,” Robertson allegedly wrote. Robertson also allegedly posted that Facebook would censor him and the FBI would pay another visit if he said what he really wanted to do to President Biden.
Following their investigation, Robertson was charged with three felony counts of Violation of 18 U.S.C. for interstate threats, threats against the president, and impeding and retaliating against federal law enforcement officers by threat.
The FBI was serving the warrant at his Provo residence when he was reportedly shot and killed. The events leading up to the shooting have not been disclosed.
“The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously,” said the spokesperson. “In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division.”
Due to the ongoing investigation, the FBI will not be releasing any more details at this time. ABC News is awaiting comment from the Secret Service.
