Austin Tucker Martin, a 21-year-old from Cameron, North Carolina, was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, after breaching the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that agents, along with a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy, opened fire on Martin at approximately 1:30 a.m. after he entered the property carrying a shotgun and a fuel canister.
“On February 22, around 1:30 a.m., a male in his early 20s was shot by U.S. Secret Service agents and a deputy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office following an unauthorized entry in the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago,” Guglielmi said.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw stated that Martin entered the property near the north gate, where he was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a sheriff’s deputy.
Martin pointed the shotgun directly at the officers before being shot and killed at the scene.
Guglielmi noted that Martin “was observed by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can,” Resist the Mainstream previously reported.
Law enforcement later located Martin’s vehicle, identified by his family as a 2013 silver Volkswagen Tiguan.
Inside the car, a box for the shotgun was discovered, suggesting Martin had acquired the weapon during his drive south from North Carolina.
Martin’s family reported him missing after he left his $1.1 million home in Cameron, North Carolina, at approximately 1 p.m. on Saturday. The last contact his family had with him was just before 8 p.m. that same evening.
“This is not like him at all,” Martin’s aunt wrote on Facebook following the incident.
Martin’s cousin, Braeden Fields, 19, expressed shock at the news, describing Martin as a quiet young man who came from a family of devoted Trump supporters.
“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, adding that his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”
Fields said Martin worked at a local golf course and regularly donated a portion of each paycheck to charity.
“He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun,” Fields said. “I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing.”
Fields also described Martin as someone who avoided political conversations entirely and was afraid of firearms.
Despite that characterization, a text message obtained by TMZ reveals Martin had become focused on the Department of Justice’s release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein in the days leading up to the incident.
On Feb. 15, one week before his death, Martin texted a co-worker about the Epstein documents.
“I don’t know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable,” Martin wrote in the 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. Raise awareness,” Martin continued in the text.
President Trump has never been charged with any involvement or wrongdoing connected to Epstein and has publicly stated he severed ties with the financier more than two decades ago.
Martin lived with his parents at their secluded countryside home and maintained an Instagram account where he posted detailed pen-and-ink illustrations of golf courses, buildings and landscapes, according to media reports.
“I specialize in pen illustrations centered around landscapes, architecture, and scenery,” Martin wrote in his account’s biography.
Family photographs shared online showed Martin smiling alongside his siblings and parents. One drawing he posted of an ornate garden was captioned, “Thank you for this gift, Dear Lord.”
