Austin Tucker Martin of Cameron, North Carolina, Was Missing Before Secret Service Shooting
Austin Tucker Martin, a 21-year-old man from North Carolina, was named as the man shot by the Secret Service outside Mar-a-Lago.
Martin's name was confirmed by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office to The Palm Beach Post, and it was also confirmed by the Associated Press.
According to The New York Post, Martin was "a North Carolina artist who was reported missing by his mom." He was from Cameron, NC, The Post reported. However, WRAL-TV reported that Martin was from Carthage, NC. Public records list an address for him in Cameron and a past address in Greenville. Cameron and Carthage are only about 10 miles apart.
Austin Tucker Martin's Family Was 'Frantically Looking for Him," Reports Say
According to The Post, Martin's "family was frantically looking for him after he disappeared on Saturday night," February 21.
A missing person's poster on his mother Melissa Martin's page refers to him as Tucker Austin Martin. "Please share so we can find my boy," she wrote with another post. That post said he lived in the Carthage, NC, area and was last seen on February 21. According to USA Today, authorities said they weren't aware of Martin before the incident. A family obituary indicates that he has a brother and sister; the latter died in 2023 at age 21 in Cameron, NC.
Mar-a-Lago shotgun-wielding madman ID'd as North Carolina golf course artist https://t.co/0d7CuQiX5Z pic.twitter.com/OWxFeoaVb7
— New York Post (@nypost) February 22, 2026
His social media accounts showed "that he was obsessed with drawing scenes from the golf courses in the Sandhills region — which includes the famed Pinehurst," The Post added.
Men's Journal has reviewed the Austin Martin Facebook page identified by The Post. "This one is taking a lot of patience but I thought I would go ahead and post my progress so far," he wrote with one golf course sketch.
On February 6, he wrote, "This next drawing is taking a bit of patience. I've also got to put college first. I think I'll have it posted by next week." His page appears entirely fixated on golf course sketches and watercolors.
Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, wrote, "An armed man was shot & killed by U.S. Secret Service agents & @PBCountySheriff after unlawfully entering the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early this morning," February 22.
He described the suspect as being in his early 20s and wrote that he was shot and killed around 1:30 a.m. A deputy from the sheriff's office and multiple Secret Service agents shot the suspect, he wrote.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Guglielmi added that the suspect was spotted at the north gate of Mar-a-Lago carrying what appeared to be a "shotgun" and a "fuel can." The motive is under investigation, he wrote. Authorities later held a photo of the shotgun aloft during a press conference.
CBS News, which also identified Austin T. Martin as the suspect, wrote: "Officials are investigating whether he purchased the shotgun along his driving route from North Carolina to Florida." CBS News also confirmed that Martin's family reported him missing to authorities.
No one else was injured in the incident.
The Sheriff Explained That the Suspect, Now Identified as Austin Martin, 'Raised the Shotgun' When Confronted
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in the news conference that the suspect made it inside the inner perimeter when he was detectived by a security team.
"A deputy and two Secret Service agents on the detail went to that area to investigate," Bradshaw said. "They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun." The sheriff said the man was ordered to drop the gas can and shotgun.
Instead, according to Bradshaw, he"raised the shotgun to a shooting position."