The armed man who was shot and killed Sunday morning at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, has been identified as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, and was reported missing by his family about the time the shooting occurred.
Breitbart News reported that law enforcement shot and killed an armed man who had breached Mar-a-Lago’s secure perimeter around 1:30 a.m. The man was carrying a shotgun and a container of gasoline.
Martin lived in North Carolina, and WXII 12 News noted that one of his relatives approached a Moore County Sheriff’s Office deputy Sunday morning to let them know Martin was missing. He was entered into a database for missing persons and later ID’d as the man who was shot at Mar-a-Lago.
Mar-a-Lago shotgun-wielding madman ID'd as North Carolina golf course artist https://t.co/0d7CuQiX5Z pic.twitter.com/OWxFeoaVb7
— New York Post (@nypost) February 22, 2026
The New York Post said that “a box for the shotgun was discovered in Martin’s vehicle following the shooting.” He allegedly entered Mar-a-Lago by driving through the gates as another vehicle left.
In the middle of the night while most Americans were asleep, the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home. Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our… https://t.co/MYTsHqR4cx
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 22, 2026
“It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department,” Leavitt added.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
