US Secret Service agents fatally shot a man armed with a shotgun 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.
Although the president often spends weekends at his resort, he and first lady Melania Trump were at the White House when the breach occurred.
Officials said the incident happened around 1:30 am (0630 GMT).
The suspect was spotted by the north gate of the Mar-a-Lago property, carrying a shotgun and a fuel can, the Secret Service said.
Agents confronted the man and told him to disarm but he raised his gun.
He was identified as Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of North Carolina.
"The only words that we said to him was 'drop the items,'" Palm Beach County sheriff Ric 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 shot him. The man was pronounced deceased and no US officers were injured.
The Secret Service said no one under its protection was present in Mar-a-Lago at the time.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for an ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service.
"It's shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department," she wrote on X.
Democrats oppose any new funding for DHS until major changes are implemented in the way the Trump administration conducts its massive and sometimes violent deportation campaign.
Trump has been the target of several assassination plots or attempts.
Earlier this month, Ryan Routh, 59, who plotted to assassinate the president at a Florida golf course in September 2024, two months before the last US election, was sentenced to life in prison.
Routh's planned attack on Trump came two months after an assassination attempt on the Republican leader in Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Matthew Crooks fired several shots during a rally, one of them grazing Trump's right ear.
That attack, in which a rallygoer was killed, proved to be a turning point in Trump's return to power. It yielded a now famous photo of a bloodied Trump raising his fist to the crowd and urging his followers to "fight, fight."
Crooks was immediately shot and killed by security forces and his motive remains unknown.
