Secret Service agents guard former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 21, 2023.
Joe Radle | Getty Images
A man armed with a shotgun and gas canister was shot and killed by authorities as he tried to enter President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida early Sunday morning, the Secret Service said.
President Trump was in the White House at the time of the incident. The president maintains a residence at Mar-a-Lago and frequently dines and hosts events at the Palm Beach Club.
The man was shot and killed by Secret Service agents and Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies after he entered a secure perimeter near Mar-a-Lago’s north gate and raised a shotgun at officers around 1:30 a.m. ET, authorities said.
The man who was shot was identified as Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of North Carolina, the FBI said in a statement Sunday.
“A deputy and two Secret Service agents on detail went to the area to investigate,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw told reporters at a news conference Sunday.
“They were confronted by a white man with a gas can and a shotgun,” Bradshaw said. “He was ordered to drop two pieces of equipment he was carrying, and as he did so he placed a gas canister and raised his shotgun into firing position.”
“At that point, the deputy and two Secret Service agents fired their weapons, neutralizing the threat,” Bradshaw said.
The FBI is investigating this incident.
“The Secret Service quickly and decisively neutralized a deranged individual armed with a gun and a gas canister who invaded President Trump’s home,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a post on X.
She also took aim at Democrats for the partial government shutdown that affected the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
“It is shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down the department,” Levitt said.
DHS has been closed for over a week. Democrats are demanding changes to how the agency conducts its immigration enforcement operations before agreeing to fund it after two Americans were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Trump narrowly avoided assassination in July 2024 when he was shot from a rooftop overlooking a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A Secret Service sniper killed the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Two months after that attempt, another would-be assassin, Ryan Routh, was arrested less than an hour after a Secret Service agent shot Routh as he waited with a rifle outside the golf course where Trump was playing.
Routh was convicted of attempting to kill Trump. He was recently sentenced to life in prison.
