Second time in 17 months a North Carolina suspect, Trump’s Florida home intertwined

For the second time in 17 months, a North Carolinian is the suspect in an incident near the home of Donald Trump.

The first was on the 2024 campaign trail at a golf course near his Florida home; the second came early Sunday morning at Mar-a-Lago while Trump, the second-term Republican president, and his wife Melania were about 1,000 miles north at The White House.

Published reports, unconfirmed by lawmen or The Center Square, say 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of the Moore County community of Carthage was shot and killed by the U.S. Secret Service. Lawmen say he drove inside what should have been a secured perimeter with a shotgun and gas can.

His family had reported him missing; in the aftermath, family members used descriptions that were anything but that of a gunman or violent.

In a press conference, Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said two Secret Service agents and a deputy confronted him about 1 a.m. He put down a gas can, raised a shotgun, and Bradshaw said agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”

Karoline Leavitt, press secretary at the White House, wrote on social media, “In the middle of the night while most Americans were asleep, the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”

On Sept. 15, 2024, Trump was golfing at Trump International Golf Club on a Sunday afternoon when the Secret Service encountered Ryan Routh on the outskirts of the course. A short vehicle chase later ended with his arrest. He was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison, convicted of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Routh’s incident came 65 days after an assassination attempt of Trump in Butler, Pa. Thomas Crooks, the would-be assassin there, was killed by the Secret Service.