The 21-year-old man who was shot and killed after entering Mar-a-Lago with a weapon was a recent high school graduate who started an artwork company last year that specialized in handmade drawings of golf courses.
The man, Austin Tucker Martin, of Cameron, N.C., was confronted by the Secret Service and officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office inside the north gate of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s residence and private club in Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Martin was carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel canister. Officers told him to drop the items, but he put down only the canister and was shot and killed after raising the shotgun to a “shooting position,” the authorities said.
President Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time of the shooting, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The incident follows two assassination attempts against Mr. Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Mr. Martin very likely drove from North Carolina to Florida on Saturday afternoon, based on information posted by family members on social media as well as a statement from the sheriff’s department in the rural North Carolina county where he lived.
Family members of Mr. Martin, including his mother, Melissa Martin, had posted on Facebook throughout the weekend that he was missing.
On Sunday morning, at around 7 a.m. — hours after Mr. Martin was killed by authorities — Ms. Martin posted to her followers, asking them to help “find my boy.” An hour later, she shared an image of a poster with a picture of Mr. Martin and information about his car, a 2013 silver Volkswagen Tiguan. He had last been heard from at 7:51 p.m. on Saturday, the poster said.
Ric L. Bradshaw, the Palm Beach County sheriff, said that the car found near the scene was a silver Volkswagen believed to belong to Mr. Martin, and that a box in the back seat appeared to have been carrying the shotgun. Sheriff Bradshaw said that authorities were not sure where Mr. Martin obtained the weapon.
On Sunday morning, police were seen surrounding a silver Volkswagen parked at Midtown Beach, a public area that is about a 30-minute walk from Mar-a-Lago.
Chrissie Fields, a woman who appeared to be Mr. Martin’s aunt, also posted on Facebook, saying that he left his home at 1 p.m. Saturday. “This is not like him at all,” she wrote.
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Neither Ms. Martin nor Ms. Fields responded to multiple requests for comment.
In a statement, the sheriff’s office of Moore County, N.C., said that a relative of Mr. Martin reported him missing at 1:38 a.m. on Sunday, around the same time that the incident at Mar-a-Lago occurred.
The sheriff’s office said that it did not have any record of prior interactions with Mr. Martin.
Mr. Martin graduated in 2023 from Union Pines High School in Cameron, N.C., according to a social media post from his mother.
In June 2025, Mr. Martin registered a business called “Fresh Sky Illustrations.” According to its website, it is an artwork company focused on “bringing to life the hopeful feeling of being on a golf course by illustrating golf course scenes and providing framed copies of handmade works in various golf course gift shops.” The company also took personal commissions, the website said.
He was a registered voter, listing his party as unaffiliated, according to state voting records.
Three high school friends of Mr. Martin said on Sunday that he sometimes expressed traditional conservative views to his classmates.
In Cameron, a town of only about 300 people, politics was often a topic of conversation, and many people expressed Republican viewpoints, the friends said, noting that they lost touch with Mr. Martin after graduation.
“He is from a very pro-Trump family and fit into that narrative,” said Clarice Bonillo, 21, who was his officer in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. “But he wouldn’t go out of his way to bash anybody from the left side or start arguments or anything like that. He had his opinion, and he mostly kept it to himself.”
Mr. Martin’s classmates described him as a smart student who was kind, helpful and talkative around his trusted group of friends. Ms. Bonillo, of Boone, N.C., said she remembered that sometimes he was depressed and anxious. She said his friends often tried to lift his spirits.
Ms. Bonillo said that she was shocked to learn about Mr. Martin’s fatal encounter at Mar-a-Lago. “It seems like a very out-of-character thing for him to do,” she said.
Another friend, Dustin Rollins, 20, of Fayetteville, said that Mr. Martin was “probably one of the kinder souls that I’ve actually ever met.”
In high school, Mr. Martin had dreams of joining the U.S. Air Force, hoping to combine his interests in planes, engineering and mechanics, Mr. Rollins said. Mr. Martin joined the Junior R.O.T.C. program to help with those prospects, but he was later turned away from the Air Force.
In 2023, he was devastated by the death of his sister, Caitlin Renea Martin, at age 21 from a car accident. He was close to his family, especially his brother and sister, and became more reclusive after her death, Mr. Rollins said.
“None of us believe he was a terrible kid,” he added, of Mr. Martin. “We all love him.”
Georgia Gee contributed research. Kaja Andric contributed reporting.
Sonia A. Rao reports on disability issues as a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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