The US Secret Service shot and killed an armed intruder who breached the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence and private club in Palm Beach.
Although the US president often spends weekends at the oceanfront resort, he was at the White House in Washington during this incident, as was first lady Melania Trump, The Guardian reported.
At a press conference on Sunday morning, Ric Bradshaw, the sheriff of Palm Beach county, said two Secret Service agents and one of his deputies went to the north gate of the property at about 1:30am ET after a security detail alerted them that a person was within an inner perimeter.
There, they confronted a white male carrying a shotgun and a gasoline can, Bradshaw said.
“He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him, at which time he put down the gas can [and] raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” the sheriff said.
“At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat. He is deceased at the scene,” he added.
Bradshaw said none of the law enforcement personnel were injured, and was unable to say if the man’s shotgun was loaded. He distributed to reporters a photograph of the shotgun and fuel canister.
A missing poster shows the man suspected of carrying a shotgun into Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this morning.
The alleged gunman was named in US media reports as Austin Tucker Martin, 21, from North Carolina.
The photograph was posted as part of a missing person poster shared by the family of "Tucker Austin Martin", from Moore County, North Carolina, several days ago.
Investigators earlier said the Mar-a-Lago gunman was believed to have travelled from North Carolina.
