US Secret Service agents shot and killed an armed man who breached the security perimeter of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), while President Trump was in Washington and no one under Secret Service protection was present at the property.
According to the Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, the suspect—a man in his early 20s—was spotted near the north gate carrying a shotgun and a fuel can. Agents and deputies confronted him and ordered him to drop the items.
“The only words that we said to him was ‘drop the items,’” Bradshaw told reporters.
“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 opened fire, striking the suspect. He was pronounced dead at the scene, with no injuries reported among law enforcement personnel.
The suspect’s identity has not been released as authorities work to notify his family.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt used the breach to criticise Democrats over the ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
“It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department,” she wrote on X.
Democrats have withheld new funding for DHS until significant reforms are made to the Trump administration’s large-scale deportation operations, which they describe as frequently violent and poorly managed.
Political Violence on the Rise
The Mar-a-Lago incident adds to a series of threats and violent acts targeting prominent political figures in a deeply polarised United States.
Earlier this month, Ryan Routh, 59, was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to assassinate President Trump at a Florida golf course in September 2024—two months before the last presidential election. That attempt followed a July 2024 shooting at a Pennsylvania rally where 20-year-old Matthew Crooks fired multiple shots, grazing Trump’s right ear and killing one rally attendee.
Crooks was killed by security forces immediately after the attack, and investigators have not determined a clear motive.
The Pennsylvania incident produced an iconic image of a bloodied Trump raising his fist to the crowd and urging supporters to “fight, fight,” widely regarded as a pivotal moment in his political comeback.
Other recent acts of political violence include the fatal shooting of right-wing influencer and Trump ally Charlie Kirk during a university event in Utah last September, the June killing of Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband by a masked gunman, and serious injuries to another elected official and his wife in the same attack.
In April, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro—once viewed as a potential presidential contender—saw his home deliberately set ablaze in what authorities described as an attempted assassination.
The US Secret Service is responsible for protecting the sitting president, vice president, former presidents and their families, major election candidates, and visiting foreign heads of state.
