By ALLEN G. BREED
CAMERON, N.C. (AP) — The 21-year-old North Carolina man who drove through a gate at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with a shotgun before he was shot and killed worked as a golf course groundskeeper and liked to sketch.
Austin Tucker Martin rarely, if ever, talked about politics, seemed afraid of guns, and came from a family of Trump supporters, according to Braeden Fields, a cousin who said the two grew up together.
“I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said. “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun.”
Martin drove into the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday and raised a shotgun at two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy who then opened fire “to neutralize the threat,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
Trump, who often spends weekends at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort, was at the White House at the time.
This image provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, shows a weapon and gas can found after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed by authorities after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via AP) A fisherman casts his neat near Mar-a-Lago Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. The U.S. Secret Service announced Sunday that an armed man was shot and killed after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) A Palm Beach County sheriff deputy talks to a bicyclist on the bridge leading to Mar-a-Lago Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. The U.S. Secret Service announced Sunday that an armed man was shot and killed after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) A map showing the layout of Mar-a-Lago. (AP Digital Embed) A vehicle blocks access to a property in Cameron, N.C., Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Show Caption1 of 5This image provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, shows a weapon and gas can found after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed by authorities after entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via AP) ExpandInvestigators have not identified a motive. Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including one just a few miles (kilometers) from Mar-a-Lago when a man was spotted aiming a rifle through shrubbery while Trump was golfing.
Following Sunday’s incident, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said investigators believe Martin bought his shotgun while driving to Florida. Authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.
Martin was from central North Carolina, where guns and hunting are a part of life, his cousin said. But whenever they’d go hunting or target shooting, Martin would never pick up a gun, Fields told The Associated Press on Sunday.
He lived with his mother in a modest modular house down a rutted sandy road near the town of Cameron. No one answered the door Monday, and the large police presence from the day before was gone.
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For the past three years, Martin worked as a groundskeeper at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.
“It’s tragic. I feel for his family,” said Kelly Miller, president of the course in nearby Southern Pines. “It’s just unfortunate what transpired. It was totally unexpected.”
Martin last year started a business to sell pen drawings he made, according to state records. A website matching the company name features illustrations of golf courses, buildings and ancient Roman architecture.
Politics didn’t seem to be among his interests, his cousin said
“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”
Associated Press reporters Michelle L. Price in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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