A Secret Service agent guards the Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump on March 21, 2023 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Authorities fatally shot an armed man as he tried to enter President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Sunday morning, the Secret Service said.
Trump was not at the Palm Beach club, where he maintains a residence, during the shooting. The president was at the White House.
The man, who was carrying a weapon and a gas canister, was shot by Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County Sheriff deputy after entering the secure perimeter around Mar-a-Lago, the Secret Service said.
Officials from the Secret Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said during a press conference Sunday morning that the man raised a shotgun at an officer before being shot. The man has not yet been identified by law enforcement, but the press release announcing the shooting said he was in his early 20’s.
“A deputy and two Secret Service agents on the detail went to that area to investigate. They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun,” said Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw. “He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him, at which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position. At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat.”
The FBI is investigating the incident, the authorities said.
Trump narrowly avoided assassination in 2024 when he was shot at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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