Around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Austin Tucker Martin, 21, from Cameron, North Carolina, entered the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago's north gate while carrying a shotgun and a gas canister. Two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy confronted him and ordered him to drop both items. Martin put down the gas can but raised the shotgun into what law enforcement described as a shooting position. The officers then shot and killed him. Trump and the First Lady were in Washington, D.C., at the time.
Martin's family had reported him missing in North Carolina early Sunday morning, around the same time as the incident. Investigators believe Martin drove from North Carolina to Florida on Saturday and purchased the shotgun during the trip. Martin worked as a groundskeeper at a golf course and had recently started a business selling pen drawings of golf courses and architecture. According to text messages obtained by media outlets, Martin had expressed concerns about the Epstein files released by the Justice Department, writing to a coworker that "evil is real" and urging others to "raise awareness." His cousin described him as quiet, from a family of Trump supporters, and someone who avoided guns.