The armed intruder who entered Mar-a-Lago’s secure perimeter was shot and killed after reportedly becoming obsessed with the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The breach happened around 1:30 a.m. near the estate’s north gate on Sunday.
The U.S. Secret Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office say the man unlawfully entered the property carrying a shotgun and a gas canister.
According to officials, he placed the gas can down and pointed the shotgun at two Secret Service agents and a sheriff’s deputy before they opened fire.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were in Washington, D.C. and were not at the property during the incident.
Authorities recovered a shotgun box from the suspect’s vehicle, indicating he had purchased the weapon while traveling from North Carolina.
Investigators identified the man as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, who had been reported missing by family members in North Carolina the day before.
Family members described him as quiet and reserved and said he worked at the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club and supplemented his income by selling pencil sketches of local landscapes and portraits.
His cousin, Braeden Fields, 19, told TMZ that the family are avid Trump supporters and said, “We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody.”
Fields said Martin generally avoided discussions of politics and firearms and appeared fearful of guns.
Family members say Martin had expressed support for President Trump as recently as late 2025.
Martin became increasingly focused on the recently released Epstein files in the weeks leading up to the incident.
He texted a co-worker on February 15, writing, “I don’t know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable.”
He added in the same message, “The best people like you and I can do is use what little influence we have. Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it.”
Investigators are probing Martin’s fixation on the Epstein case as a possible motive in the shooting.
Text message sent last week by the 21-year-old who was killed by Secret Service today after attempting an armed infiltration of Mar-a-Lago. Co-workers told TMZ he recently “became fixated on Epstein” and was “deeply disturbed by what he believed was a government cover-up” pic.twitter.com/WYYo7zf9Yu
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 22, 2026
The Justice Department has released more than three-million documents tied to the Epstein investigation, including emails, videos and flight logs.
The files include unverified and debunked allegations as well as any email ever sent to or received by Epstein.
Mentions in the files can include trivial references, such as political emails that landed in Epstein’s spam folder.
Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans have seized on public confusion to claim President Trump was “mentioned in the files” thousands of times and to imply wrongdoing.
In reality, President Trump has never been accused of involvement in Epstein’s crimes despite years of investigation and the release of millions of files.
Trump and Epstein were occasional social acquaintances in the 1990s but fell out after 2004, and Epstein was later banned from Mar-a-Lago amid allegations of inappropriate conduct with minors.
The reported ban followed complaints that Epstein pressured an 18-year-old Mar-a-Lago spa worker for sex during a house call and harassed the teenage daughter of another club member.
That girl’s father reportedly complained directly to Mr. Trump, who revoked Epstein’s access “in no uncertain terms.”
Epstein later expressed resentment toward Trump in emails and recordings from 2017–2019, calling him a “horrible human being” who was “evil beyond belief” and “borderline insane.”
The files also show Epstein texted U.S. Delegate Stacey Plaskett about how to attack Trump during a 2019 congressional hearing.
President Trump contacted the Palm Beach Police Department about Epstein’s activities after allegations became public in 2006.
