Share and Follow
In Brief
- US Secret Service agents confronted the man and told him to disarm but he raised his gun. Agents then shot him dead..
- Donald Trump, who often spends his weekends in Mar-a-Lago, was in Washington.
A man wielding a shotgun was shot dead by US Secret Service agents after he breached the security perimeter at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
At the time of the security breach, President Trump was in Washington. The incident, according to officials, occurred around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (equivalent to 5:30 p.m. AEDT).
The individual, described as a man in his early 20s, was seen near the north gate of Mar-a-Lago, carrying both a shotgun and a fuel can, as confirmed by the Secret Service.
Agents approached the man, instructing him to disarm, but he instead raised his weapon.
“The sole instruction we gave him was to ‘drop the items,’” explained Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw during a press briefing.
“At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said.
A deputy and two Secret Service agents then shot him. The man was pronounced deceased and no US officers were injured.
The Secret Service said no one under its protection was present in Mar-a-Lago at the time.
The name of the suspect has not been released while officials attempt to contact his relatives.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for an ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes the Secret Service.
“It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department,” she wrote on X.
Democrats oppose any new funding for DHS until major changes are implemented in the way the Trump administration conducts its massive and sometimes violent deportation campaign.
Political violence on the rise
Trump, who often spends his weekends in Mar-a-Lago, has been the target of several assassination plots or attempts.
Earlier this month, Ryan Routh, 59, who plotted to assassinate the president at a Florida golf course in September 2024, two months before the last US election, was sentenced to life in prison.
Routh’s planned attack on Trump came two months after an assassination attempt on the Republican leader in Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Matthew Crooks fired several shots during a rally, one of them grazing Trump’s right ear.
That attack, in which a rally-goer was killed, proved to be a turning point in Trump’s return to power.
It yielded a now famous photo of a bloodied Trump raising his fist to the crowd and urging his followers to “fight, fight”.
Crooks was immediately shot and killed by security forces and his motive remains unknown.
Political violence has escalated in a deeply polarised country where the political discourse has become increasingly aggressive and inflammatory.
In September last year, right-wing influencer and staunch Trump ally Charlie Kirk was shot dead during an event at a university in Utah.
Before that, in June, a masked shooter killed Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband at their home.
Another elected official and his wife were also targeted and seriously injured.
And Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro — touted last year as a presidential hopeful — had his home set alight in April in an alleged assassination attempt.
The US Secret Service is responsible for the safety of the president, vice president and former presidents, and their families, as well as major election candidates and visiting foreign heads of state.
For the latest from SBS News, download our app and subscribe to our newsletter.