Florida: Armed man shot dead after breaking into Donald Trump’s residence

The individual in his twenties, armed with a rifle and a can of gasoline, was killed by the police after he managed to break into the American president’s Mar-a-Lago villa.

An armed man illegally entered the grounds of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and was shot dead by the police, an official of the American Secret Service, responsible for the protection of senior political figures, announced on Sunday. The American president was not there, he was in Washington at the time of the events.

“An armed man was shot dead (…) after illegally entering the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago early this morning,” announced Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesperson for the Secret Service on

During a brief press conference, the police then returned to this confrontation. “The only words we said to him were ‘drop what you’re carrying,’ which was the gas can and the gun,” said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. “At that point, he put down the gas can and raised the rifle to the firing position” and it was “there” that a Palm Beach County police officer and Secret Service agents “fired and neutralized the threat.” The suspect “died on the spot,” he said. No officers were injured.

Assassination attempts

Law enforcement did not provide additional details about the identity of the suspect, but showed an image of the seized rifle during the news conference. The Federal Police (FBI) asked residents in the area to check the images from their outdoor cameras.

Donald Trump was the subject of two assassination attempts during the last presidential campaign. In July 2024, he was shot and hit in the ear during a meeting in Pennsylvania during which a spectator was killed. Two months later, he was targeted in another assassination attempt on a golf course in Florida. The Secret Service was widely criticized in these two cases.

The United States has more personal weapons than people: one in three adults owns at least one and nearly one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.