{"id":311996,"date":"2026-02-22T21:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311996\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T21:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T21:35:07","slug":"man-shot-dead-trying-to-unlawfully-enter-donald-trumps-mar-a-lago-resort-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311996\/","title":{"rendered":"Man shot dead trying to \u2018unlawfully\u2019 enter Donald Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US<\/a> secret service and local police shot and killed a man armed with a shotgun early on Sunday after he breached a secure perimeter at \u200bpresident Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida<\/a>, law enforcement officials said.<\/p>\n

Trump, who is currently in Washington, was not at the social club at the time. <\/p>\n

The man in Sunday\u2019s incident was identified as Austin Tucker Martin (21) from North Carolina, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Martin was \u200breported missing within the last few days, according to the source.<\/p>\n

He was carrying a shotgun and a fuel can, the secret service said, adding that he was observed at the resort\u2019s north gate \u2060around 6.30am Irish time.<\/p>\n

Two secret s\u200bervice agents and a Palm Beach county sheriff\u2019s deputy confronted \u200bthe man and ordered him to drop the two items, Palm Beach county sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a press \u200cconference on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The man put down the \u200bgas canister and raised the shotgun \u201cto a shooting position\u201d, prompting law enforcement to open fire, Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n

The man was \u2060declared dead at the scene. No law \u2060enforcement officers were injured.<\/p>\n

White House \u200bspokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the secret service \u201cacted quickly and decisively to neutralise a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded president Trump\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials did not reveal any information about the motive for the incident. The FBI<\/a> has taken over the investigation and is collecting evidence from the scene, officials said.<\/p>\n

FBI director Kash Patel said in a social media post that the agency is \u201cdedicating all necessary resources\u201d to the investigation.<\/p>\n

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said he spoke with Trump after the incident. Bessent thanked \u200cthe secret service for protecting \u2060the president and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know whether this person was a mastermind, unhinged or what,\u201d Bessent said on the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred at a time when the United States is facing a spike in political violence.<\/p>\n

In 2024, a gunman\u2019s \u200bbullet grazed Trump\u2019s ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, and a man later convicted of attempted assassination was spotted hiding in the bushes of \u2060a Florida golf course with a semi-automatic rifle while Trump was on the course.<\/p>\n

Trump faced two assassination \u200cattempts in 2024, including one at his golf course in West Palm Beach. The perpetrator of that incident, Ryan Routh, was sentenced to life in prison<\/a> this \u200bmonth.<\/p>\n

Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota, was shot and killed<\/a> in June \u200b2025 along with her husband. Months later, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was also assassinated<\/a>. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US secret service and local police shot and killed a man armed with a shotgun early on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,285,2195,42,22680,43,40,38,41,39,115,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-311996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-fbi","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-melania-trump","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}