Moore County armed man shot dead at Mar-a-Lago was never interested in politics or guns, cousin says

CAMERON, N.C. (WTVD) — The 21-year-old North Carolina man who entered a gate at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with a shotgun before he was shot and killed worked as a golf course groundskeeper and liked to sketch.

Austin Tucker Martin rarely, if ever, talked about politics, seemed afraid of guns, and came from a family of Trump supporters, according to Braeden Fields, a cousin who said the two grew up together.

“I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said. “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun.”

Martin walked up to the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday and went through a gate when it opened for employees to leave, a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson said Monday. Martin dropped a gas can and raised a shotgun at two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy who then opened fire “to neutralize the threat,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

Investigators are trying to retrace Austin Tucker Martin’s drive from Moore County to Florida.

Trump, who often spends weekends at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort, was at the White House at the time.

Investigators have not identified a motive. Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including one just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago when a man was spotted aiming a rifle through shrubbery while Trump was golfing.

Following Sunday’s incident, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said investigators believe Martin bought his shotgun while driving to Florida. Authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.

A spokesperson for Moore County Schools confirmed that Martin graduated from Union Pines High School in Cameron in 2023.

Martin was from Moore County, where guns and hunting are a part of life, his cousin said. But whenever they’d go hunting or target shooting, Martin would never pick up a gun, Fields told The Associated Press on Sunday.

He lived with his mother in a modest modular house down a rutted sandy road near the town of Cameron.

Martin’s sister was just 21 when she was killed in a car wreck in 2023, and he has an older brother who’s in the military, Fields said.

For the past three years, Martin worked as a groundskeeper at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.

“It’s tragic. I feel for his family,” said Kelly Miller, president of the course in nearby Southern Pines. “It’s just unfortunate what transpired. It was totally unexpected.”

In 2025, he registered an LLC with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office called Fresh Sky Illustrations. His website features sketches of nature and golf courses in the area, including Hole No. 2 at the Golf Club at Quail Ridge in Sanford.

“He just didn’t seem overly talkative. He kind of was to the point. He was wanting to take a picture of the golf course, and that’s pretty much it,” recalled Brandon Honeycutt, who serves as the head golf pro at the public course.

Politics didn’t seem to be among his interests, his cousin said

“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”

Honeycutt said he did not have any follow-up interactions with Martin and added that Martin did not work there.

“I was just kind of in disbelief. I mean, something like that is kind of really out there in my opinion. But like I said yesterday, you never know what somebody is going through,” said Honeycutt, upon learning of Martin’s involvement in the Florida investigation.

Voting records from the North Carolina State Board of Elections showed Martin voted early in the 2024 general election and was registered as unaffiliated.

The Associated Press contributed.