U.S. Secret Service and local police shot and killed a man armed with a shotgun early on Sunday after he breached a secure perimeter at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, law enforcement officials said.
The man was identified as a 21-year-old from North Carolina, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, who said he had been reported missing within the last few days.
The Secret Service said he was carrying a shotgun and a fuel can and was observed at the resort’s north gate around 1:30 a.m. EST (0630 GMT).
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said two Secret Service agents and a sheriff’s deputy confronted him and ordered him to drop both items.
He placed the fuel can on the ground but then raised the shotgun “to a shooting position,” prompting officers to open fire.
The man was declared dead at the scene. No officers were injured.
Law enforcement officials have not provided any information about the motive.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the Secret Service “acted quickly and decisively to neutralise a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”
The FBI has taken over the investigation and is collecting evidence. FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency is “dedicating all necessary resources” to the investigation.
Trump, who is currently in Washington, was not at the site at the time.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he spoke with Trump after the incident and thanked the Secret Service for protecting the president and his family.
“We don’t know whether this person was a mastermind, unhinged or what,” Bessent said on Fox News.
In 2024, a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one spectator before a Secret Service counter-sniper shot the attacker.
Two months later, agents disrupted another attempt near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, where Ryan Routh was arrested after fleeing the scene.
He was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for attempting to assassinate the president.
In 2025, violence continued. Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman was shot and killed in June along with her husband, and months later conservative activist Charlie Kirk was also assassinated.
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