U.S. Secret Service agents and a sheriff’s deputy fatally shot an armed intruder who entered the secure zone around President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The incident occurred early Sunday at 01:30 ET, with the president in Washington DC. The man carried a shotgun and petrol canister.
Officers confronted him near the north gate. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw described the encounter. “The only words that we said to him was ‘drop the items’ which means the gas can and the shotgun,” he said. “At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position.” Agents fired to neutralise the threat. Body cameras recorded the event, and no officers were hurt.
The suspect was 21-year-old Austin T Martin from Cameron, North Carolina. His family reported him missing that morning, passing details to federal authorities. Local police had no prior record of him.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi noted on X that agents acted after seeing the man “unlawfully entering the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early this morning.”
The agency confirmed he “was observed by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can.” Director Sean Curran reviewed operations in Florida.
The FBI aids probes into the weapon and motives. Mar-a-Lago uses layered security with sheriff patrols outside and Secret Service inside, including searches and detectors.
This follows prior threats on Trump, like the July 2024 Butler rally shooting that grazed his ear, killed one, and injured two; shooter Matthew Crooks died. Ryan Routh, caught with a rifle at Trump’s golf club, got life in prison this month.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed political rhetoric on Fox Business. “Two would-be assassins dead, one in jail for life, and this venom coming from the other side,” he said. “They are normalising this violence. It’s got to stop.”
Such violence marked last year, including arson at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s mansion, murders of a Democratic lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota, and an attack on right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.