The 21-year-old gunman killed after breaching the secure perimeter of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is believed to have been driven by a conviction that the Trump administration was shielding powerful figures implicated in the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files, according to law enforcement sources and people who knew him.
Authorities have identified the man as Austin Tucker Martin, a North Carolina resident who was shot dead early Sunday after entering a restricted area near the north gate of the Palm Beach estate carrying a shotgun and a fuel canister.
Investigators say initial evidence, including text messages and interviews with colleagues, indicates Martin had grown obsessed with the newly released Epstein documents and believed the government was hiding the identities or misconduct of influential people named in the files, according to TMZ.
The FBI and Secret Service are continuing to examine his digital footprint, travel records, and weapon purchase as they work to determine whether he acted alone and whether his actions amounted to a planned attack or a disturbed outburst.
People who worked with Martin at a golf resort in North Carolina told reporters he had become fixated on the Epstein case in recent weeks, repeatedly complaining that "powerful people were getting away with it" and suggesting the Trump administration was involved in a cover-up.
Co-workers described him as generally quiet but increasingly consumed by online conspiracy theories after the Justice Department released a massive trove of Epstein-related records last month under a federal transparency law.
In at least one text message cited in media reports, Martin allegedly said he needed to "raise awareness" about Epstein shortly before driving south toward Florida.
The shooting occurred around 1:30 a.m. local time, when Martin allegedly drove into or crossed a secure perimeter near Mar-a-Lago and was confronted by Secret Service agents and local deputies.
Officials say he set down the fuel can when ordered, but then raised the shotgun into a firing position, prompting agents and officers to open fire, killing him at the scene, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Trump and his family were not at the property at the time; the president was in Washington for events at the White House, and authorities say no protectees or bystanders were injured.
The incident came less than a month after the Justice Department's latest and largest release of Epstein files, which included millions of pages of documents and sparked renewed public scrutiny over which prominent figures might have been associated with the disgraced financier.
Officials have stressed that many names appearing in the records are not accused of crimes, and they have denied that any part of the Trump administration is suppressing evidence or shielding individuals from accountability, as per the New York Times.
