“It’s a Sicilian message”

“Complete and total shock.” Neighbors speak about the Provo man killed by the FBI

PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — On Wednesday morning, Provo resident Craig Robertson was shot and killed by the FBI after allegedly threatening to kill President Biden. ABC4 spoke with his neighbors to get a closer look at how neighbors and friends perceived him.

Robertson was described by neighbors as an older church-going man. He was reportedly in his late 70s, and barely mobile. According to neighbors, Robertson used a hand-carved walking stick just to get out of a chair and move around.

One neighbor, Connor Bunch, said Robertson was a weird old guy, just like any other weird old guy.

“He would say funny things sometimes, but I never thought anything of it because old people say weird things all the time,” Bunch said. “You know, everyone has someone in their life, some old person in their life that says whacky things, so I didn’t think anything of it.”

Bunch also said at one time Robertson noticed that there was an old lady at church who wanted a ramp built for her trailer so she could get in and out more easily, so he organized volunteers to come and build the lady a ramp.

“It was a positive experience, That’s one of the only memories that I have of [Robertson]. I never really was friends with [him] or talked to him that much, but he just seemed like a decent guy to me,” Bunch said. “It’s really surprising to see that something like this would happen.”

Another neighbor, Travis Lee Clark, said Robertson was the financial clerk in their ward for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly a decade. Clark said at the time he was the executive secretary so he knew him pretty well.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable, it’s a complete and total shock. I can’t believe it happened.”

According to Clark, Robertson was a great guy, a woodworker, and was always working on toys or rocking horses for kids. At the time of his death, he was reportedly in the process of building a bed for his adult son Sean whom he took care of.

“He was not anyone that anybody would ever look at or regard as a threat in any way,” Clark said.

Clark said most members of the community are worried about Robertson’s son Sean. He is reportedly disabled and blind and was living with his father who was his primary caretaker. A few weeks ago he reportedly suffered a stroke and wasn’t living at home at the time of the incident but lived there usually.

According to Clark, while Robertson was political, and collected guns, the posts he saw on Facebook were not the man he knew.

“He was very political, very pro-second amendment, he loved his guns and he loved woodworking as a hobby, but I never saw anything that indicated that he might be violent,” Clark said. “He could be kind of [a] curmudgeonly old guy […] but [a] very lovable big teddy bear of a guy.”

Clark said he believes Robertson may have just let himself get carried away on social media.

“I can’t imagine that he could either physically or mentally act on any of that at all. So I think it’s just a tragedy like this, an abject tragedy that got out of hand,” Clark said.

Around 6:15 a.m., FBI agents attempted to serve an arrest and search warrant at his Provo residence when the raid led to the shooting and killing of Robertson.

Robertson had allegedly posted multiple threats of violence toward President Biden, Vice President Harris, and New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Investigators had deemed the threats as credible.