A Utah man accused of making threats against Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state on Wednesday, authorities said. Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6.15am, the FBI said in a statement. Biden is scheduled to fly to Utah late on Wednesday. The shooting is under review by the FBI. Cooper Robinson, one of Robertson’s neighbor, told KSL that he was walking his dog around 5.30am when he saw five or six police vehicles surround Robertson’s home. “I couldn’t see much from where I was, I could just hear,” Robinson told KSL, adding that he heard loud booms which he assumed were flashbang grenades. “They started talking over their microphone saying, ‘Craig Robertson, please come out with your hands up. They did that a few times,’” he added. Court documents allege Robertson referenced a “presidential assassination” and also allege threats against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, attorney general Merrick Garland and New York attorney general Letitia James. Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and “clean the dust off the m24 sniper rifle”, according to court documents. In another post, Robertson refers to himself as a “MAGA Trumper”, a reference to former US president Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” slogan. The posts indicated he did appear to own a long-range sniper rifle and numerous other weapons, as well as camouflage gear known as a “ghillie suit”, investigators said in court records. Another post that KSL reviewed read, “In my dream, I see Joe Biden’s body in a dark corner of a DC parking garage with his head severed and lying in a huge puddle of blood. Hoorah.” Robertson was charged under seal Tuesday with three felony counts, including making threats against the president, court documents show. “The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” authorities say Robertson wrote in a September 2022 Facebook post included in the filings. No attorney was immediately listed for Robertson in court documents. According to court documents reviewed by the Washington Post, Robertson allegedly wrote in October 2022, “Merrick Garland, the Demented Weasel, I am 100% anti-abortion. Why are your FBI cowards not kicking in my door? Know this ‘they will die.’” In a statement reported by the Post, the FBI’s Utah office spokesperson Sandra Barker said: “The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or taskforce members seriously. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division. As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide.” A US Secret Service spokesperson appeared to confirm the FBI investigation “involving an individual in Utah who has exhibited threats towards a Secret Service protectee”, ABC reports. Biden is in the middle of a trip to the western United States. He spent Wednesday in New Mexico, where he spoke at a factory that will produce wind towers and is scheduled to fly to Utah later in the day. On Thursday, he’s expected to visit a Veterans Affairs hospital to talk about the Pact Act, which expanded veterans benefits, and hold a re-election fundraiser. Wednesday’s incident comes amid a rise in political violence across the country over the years, a threat which experts warn endangers the health of America’s democracy. In a report released by the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution in February, researchers found that 12% of the people who supported political violence indicated that they have personally threatened to use or actually used a gun, knife or other weapon on someone in the past few years. There have also been other incidents of those threatening political figures with violence in recent months. In January, a dual citizen of France and Canada pleaded guilty to mailing ricin to former president Donald Trump. Meanwhile, in June, a New Hampshire man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill an unnamed US senator. According to a recent University of Chicago survey shared with the Guardian last month, the number of Americans who believe the use of force is justified to restore Trump as president increased by roughly 6 million in the last few months to an estimated 18 million people.