The 21-year-old man who was shot and killed after entering Mar-a-Lago with a weapon was a recent high school graduate who started an artwork company last year that specialized in handmade drawings of golf courses.
The man, Austin Tucker Martin, of Cameron, N.C., was confronted by the Secret Service and officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office inside the north gate of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s residence and private club in Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Martin was carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel canister. Officers told him to drop the items, but he put down only the canister and was shot and killed after raising the shotgun to a “shooting position,” the authorities said.
President Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time of the shooting, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The incident follows two assassination attempts against Mr. Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Mr. Martin very likely drove from North Carolina to Florida on Saturday afternoon, based on information posted by family members on social media as well as a statement from the sheriff’s department in the rural North Carolina county where he lived.
Family members of Mr. Martin, including his mother, Melissa Martin, had posted on Facebook throughout the weekend that he was missing.
On Sunday morning, at around 7 a.m. — hours after Mr. Martin was killed by authorities — Ms. Martin posted to her followers, asking them to help “find my boy.” An hour later, she shared an image of a poster with a picture of Mr. Martin and information about his car, a 2013 silver Volkswagen Tiguan. He had last been heard from at 7:51 p.m. on Saturday, the poster said.
Ric L. Bradshaw, the Palm Beach County sheriff, said that the car found near the scene was a silver Volkswagen believed to belong to Mr. Martin, and that a box in the back seat appeared to have been carrying the shotgun. Sheriff Bradshaw said that authorities were not sure where Mr. Martin obtained the weapon.
On Sunday morning, police were seen surrounding a silver Volkswagen parked at Midtown Beach, a public area that is about a 30-minute walk from Mar-a-Lago.
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