Armed Man Shot Dead at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate in Florida

2026-02-26 21:00:34

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(MENAFN) An armed man was shot and killed by US Secret Service agents after breaching the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in the early hours of Sunday, authorities confirmed.

The intruder — later identified by investigators as Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of North Carolina, according to media citing an anonymous source not yet authorized to publicly discuss the investigation — entered the Palm Beach property at approximately 1:30 a.m. carrying a shotgun and a gas can. He was met by Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy. “Shots were fired by law enforcement during the encounter,” the agency said in a formal statement.

Martin was pronounced dead at the scene. No law enforcement personnel sustained injuries. The Secret Service confirmed that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were not present at the estate at the time.

A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office told reporters that the intruder “raised the shotgun to a shooting position” before officers opened fire. The Sheriff’s Office and the FBI have since launched a formal investigation into the incident.

Authorities believe Martin departed North Carolina and traveled south, acquiring the weapon during the journey. Investigators recovered the gun’s packaging from his vehicle. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi was cited by media as confirming that detail. His family had reported him missing since Saturday afternoon.

The breach marks the latest in a series of serious security incidents surrounding the US president. On July 13, 2024, Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire, grazing the president’s ear, killing one attendee, and wounding several others before being neutralized by a counter-sniper team.

Weeks later, a second threat materialized outside Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a heavily armed man was apprehended in what authorities treated as another assassination attempt. That suspect, Ryan Routh, 59 — known to have expressed pro-Ukraine views — was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.

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