US Secret Service agents fatally shot a man armed with a shotgun who breached the security perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Trump was in Washington at the time of the incident, which officials said happened around 1.30am local time.
The suspect, a man in his early 20s, was spotted by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property, carrying a shotgun and a fuel can, the Secret Service said.
Agents confronted the man and told him to disarm but he raised his gun.
The Telegraph reported the suspect was Austin Tucker Martin, 21, from North Carolina. He was reported missing a few days ago by his family.
His social media, which appears to have been taken down, showed he enjoyed drawing scenes from golf courses.
Investigators believe he travelled south, picked up a shotgun and drove through the north gate of Mar-a-Lago as another vehicle left. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, described him as a “crazy person”, the publication reported.
“The only words that we said to him was ‘drop the items’,” Palm Beach County sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters.
“At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said.
A deputy and two Secret Service agents then shot him. The man was pronounced dead and no US officers were injured.
The Secret Service said no one under its protection was present in Mar-a-Lago at the time.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for an ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service.
“It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department,” she wrote on X.
Democrats oppose any new funding for DHS until major changes are implemented in the way the Trump administration conducts its massive and sometimes violent deportation campaign.
Trump, who often spends his weekends in Mar-a-Lago, has been the target of several assassination plots or attempts.
Earlier this month, Ryan Routh, 59, who plotted to assassinate the President at a Florida golf course in September 2024, two months before the last US election, was sentenced to life in prison.
Routh’s planned attack on Trump came two months after an assassination attempt on the Republican leader in Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Matthew Crooks fired several shots during a rally, one of them grazing Trump’s right ear.
That attack, in which a rallygoer was killed, proved to be a turning point in Trump’s return to power. It yielded a now famous photo of a bloodied Trump raising his fist to the crowd and urging his followers to “fight, fight”.
Crooks was immediately shot and killed by security forces and his motive remains unknown.
Political violence has escalated in a deeply polarised country where the political discourse has become increasingly aggressive and inflammatory.
In September last year, right-wing influencer and staunch Trump ally Charlie Kirk was shot dead during an event at a university in Utah.
Before that, in June, a masked shooter killed Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband at their home. Another elected official and his wife were also targeted and seriously injured.
And Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – touted last year as a presidential hopeful – had his home set alight in April in an alleged assassination attempt.
The name of the suspect in the Sunday incident has not been released while officials attempt to contact his relatives.
The US Secret Service is responsible for the safety of the President, Vice-President and former Presidents, and their families, as well as major election candidates and visiting foreign heads of state.
- Agence France-Presse/Telegraph