The man who trespassed onto Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate with a shotgun and a gas canister reportedly grew up in a family of Trump supporters and later developed an intense fixation on how the administration dealt with the Epstein files. Austin Tucker Martin, 21, was shot and killed early Sunday morning after he made his way onto Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Braeden Fields, Martin's cousin, said he was stunned by what happened. He described Martin as a quiet person and added that nearly everyone in their family strongly supported Trump. "We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody," Fields said, but his cousin was "real quiet, never really talked about anything."
Strange Truths
Martin was also believed to support Trump himself, with people who worked with him saying he had spoken positively about the president as recently as late last year. At the same time, messages later uncovered suggest something else may have been weighing heavily on him.
A text Martin sent suggests that he may have been influenced by the Department of Justice's release of files linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
On February 15 — just a week before he was shot and killed by law enforcement — Martin reached out to a co-worker at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina to discuss the files, hinting at how deeply the issue had begun to affect him. "I don't know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable," Martin said.
"The best people like you and I can do is use what little influence we have. Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it. Raise awareness."
Trump has never been charged with any wrongdoing connected to Epstein and has consistently maintained that he severed ties with the financier more than two decades ago.
According to co-workers, Martin — who openly spoke about his Christian faith — had become deeply consumed by the Epstein saga. They said he often voiced anger about powerful elites "getting away with it," and that the issue seemed to weigh heavily on him.
Stayed Away from Guns
Those who knew him also said he had grown increasingly discouraged by the state of the U.S. economy and felt frustrated after unsuccessfully trying to organize a union at his workplace. At the same time, his cousin Fields painted a different picture, describing Martin as quiet, uneasy around guns, and coming from a family of avid Trump supporters.
"He's a good kid," Fields, 19, said. He said they grew up together. "I wouldn't believe he would do something like this. It's mind-blowing," Fields added.
Fields said Martin held a job at a nearby golf course and was known for his generosity, regularly setting aside a portion of his paycheck to donate to charity.
"He wouldn't even hurt an ant. He doesn't even know how to use a gun," Fields said.
Fields said his cousin rarely talked about politics at all. In a Facebook post, Martin's family shared that they last heard from him just before 8 p.m. on Saturday, after he had left his $1.1 million home in Cameron, North Carolina, earlier that day, around 1 p.m. "This is not like him at all," his devastated aunt wrote.
Martin lived with his parents at their quiet, rural home, tucked away in the countryside. In his free time, he had a creative side — an Instagram account linked to him showed he enjoyed sketching golf course layouts.
