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Armed man is shot and killed at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach Sheriff says
A building is seen at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson
/
AP
)
U.S. Secret Service officials said an armed man was shot and killed after he entered President Donald Trump's private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., early Sunday morning. The FBI later identified the man as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of Moore County, North Carolina.
Trump was in Washington at the time.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters the man — who was later identified as Martin — made it to the "inner perimeter" of Mar-a-Lago with a shotgun and gas can before agents stopped him.
"He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him," Bradshaw said. "At which time, he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position."
Two Secret Service agents and a sheriff's deputy then fired on him, Bradshaw said. Martin died at the scene.
Secret Service Communications Director Anthony Guglielmi said in a post that no agents or officers were injured, and no one the Secret Service protects was present at Mar-a-Lago during the shooting.
The FBI is leading the investigation.
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In a post on X, Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, praised the Secret Service's action: "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 country safe and protect all Americans," she wrote. "It's shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department."
Democrats are negotiating with the White House on a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, and has been without funding for more than a week, in exchange for changes to immigration enforcement operations.
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