An armed man has been shot dead after entering the secure perimeter of US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the Secret Service has said.
The man was carrying a shotgun and fuel can when he was stopped and shot by Secret Service agents and a Sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.
The incident happened around 01:30 ET (06:30 GMT) on Sunday morning, when the president was in Washington DC.
The suspect has been named as 21-year-old Austin T Martin of Cameron, North Carolina, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS.
His family in North Carolina had reported him missing in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to the BBC.
The missing persons information has since been turned over to federal authorities, the sheriff’s office said.
They added that the department had no prior history involving Martin and it was not involved in the Florida investigation.
Officials are looking into whether he bought the gun along the driving route he took from North Carolina to Florida, according to CBS.
Secret Service agents fired at him after they saw him “unlawfully entering the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early this morning”, agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi posted on X.
The suspect “was observed by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can”, the agency said in a statement.
The man was then shot after refusing orders, Palm Beach County sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
“The only words that we said to him was ‘drop the items’ which means the gas can and the shotgun,” Bradshaw told a news conference.
“At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” he said.
At that point, agents fired their weapons to “neutralise the threat”, he said.
The officers were wearing body cameras and no law enforcement officers were injured, he added.
Bradshaw said that he does not know if the suspect’s gun was loaded, and that will form part of an investigation, which the FBI will be assisting in.
By Anthony Solly
