A man was shot and killed Sunday after breaching the secure perimeter at President Trump ’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the Secret Service said.
The president and first lady Melania Trump are in Washington, D.C., this weekend.
The man, in his early 20s, was seen at Mar-a-Lago’s north gate early Sunday morning and was “armed with a shotgun and in possession of a gasoline canister,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters.
The man came just inside the gate, and a sheriff’s deputy and two Secret Service agents confronted him. They asked him to drop the items. “He put the gas can down and pointed the shotgun at the officers,” Bradshaw said. The authorities shot him and he died at the scene, according to Bradshaw.
“Fortunately nobody was in jeopardy inside because of the quick action that was taken by the deputies and the Secret Service,” Bradshaw said.
A White House official identified the man as Austin Tucker Martin. The Moore County Sheriff Department in North Carolina said a relative had reported him missing on Sunday and federal authorities told the office they are conducting an active investigation in Florida involving Martin.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media that the Secret Service “acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”
Brett Skiles , special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Miami field office, asked people living near the area of the shooting to contact authorities if they had camera footage detailing anything suspicious Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Trump often spends weekends at Mar-a-Lago during the winter months. He stayed in Washington this weekend to meet with governors from various states and hold policy meetings. He doesn’t have any public events scheduled for Sunday. The White House referred comments to the Secret Service and FBI, which is handling the response to the incident.
In 2024, a man hid in bushes with a sniper rifle while Trump was at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., close to Mar-a-Lago. The man fled once Secret Service agents opened fire but he was arrested shortly after. He was found guilty last year of attempting to assassinate Trump.
Trump was targeted at a rally in July 2024, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks evaded Secret Service and hid on a rooftop, gaining a clear line of sight to Trump and firing six rounds before being shot by officers. Trump was hit on the ear , one spectator was killed and two people were critically injured.
Write to Natalie Andrews at natalie.andrews@wsj.com and Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com
