What we know about the man shot dead at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate

David J. Neal, Miami Herald on Feb 22, 2026

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Not much beyond artistic talent and where he lived is known about Austin Tucker Martin, the suspect fatally shot after authorities said he pointed a shotgun at law enforcement officers on the grounds of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

Martin died after being shot about 700 miles from his North Carolina home. He was 21.

—Martin was one of 244 citizens (as counted by the 2020 U.S. Census) in Cameron, a town in North Carolina’s Moore County that’s about 55 miles southwest of Raleigh. He lived with his mother, father and older brother in what a Redfin listing says is a 2,130-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch house.

—The database Nexis said he’d didn’t declare a party affiliation and last voted on Election Day, 2024.

—Moore County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday it had “no prior history involving Martin” before his family reported him missing in Sunday’s wee hours.

—An older sister, Caitlin, died at the age of 21 while hospitalized in 2023. Obituaries for Caitlin Martin don’t list a cause of death.

—Martin, who drew pen illustrations and was starting to work in watercolors, limited his online presence to a website for Fresh Sky Illustrations and an Instagram account, greenillustrator11, to promote Fresh Sky. “Fresh Sky Illustrations is an artwork company that mainly focuses on bringing to life the hopeful feeling of being on a golf course by illustrating golf course scenes and providing framed copies of handmade works in various golf course gift shops while handling personal commissions on the side.”

—Some of the pictures Martin drew of the Quail Ridge Golf Course in nearby Sanford, North Carolina, remain with the course in framed photos, Quail Ridge head professional Brandon Huneycutt told the Raleigh News & Observer. Huneycutt said the course let Martin take a golf cart out to shoot pictures of the course before drawing it.

—Moore County Sheriff’s Office said a relative of Martin’s reported him missing to a deputy 1:38 a.m., around the time the encounter at Mar-a-Lago was happening. Social media posts from the family claim he hadn’t been heard from since just before 8 p.m. Saturday and hadn’t been seen since the afternoon. The sheriff’s office put Martin’s name in a national missing person database, then “federal authorities informed the sheriff’s office that they are conducting an active investigation in Florida involving Martin.”

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(Raleigh News & Observer reporter Tammy Grubb contributed to this report.)

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