Do photos and social media accounts of Austin Tucker Martin reveal him to be transgender? No, that's not true: The photos purporting to show Martin, who was killed while allegedly armed and breaking into President Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club, are mislabeled. They show an unidentified person who does not resemble verified family photos of Martin. No credible reporting about Austin Tucker Martin says that he was transgender.
The photos appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @kinocopter on Feb. 22, 2026. It was captioned:
🚨 Austin Tucker who was shot and killed trying to breach Mar-a-Lago with a gun this morning has been discovered to be trans after uncovering his social media accounts which have since been deleted.
These are the two mislabeled images included with the post:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/kinocopter/status/2025644355260924120.)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from X.)
The two images above show an unidentified person who is not Austin Tucker Martin. Reverse image searches with Google Lens return just a few social media posts from the past day which repeat the same baseless claim. These images have not been published by credible news outlets.
Martin's family in North Carolina had reported him missing. A poster with a photo of him wearing a grey winter coat and tinted eye glasses (pictured below) was circulated with the Carthage, North Carolina Police Department phone number.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from Yahoo News.)
Martin was shot after 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 22, 2026 by two secret service agents and a Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputy after he entered Trump's Palm Beach, Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. A press briefing led by Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw is embedded below (archived here).
On Feb. 22, 2026 the Moore County North Carolina Sheriff's Office posted (archived here) a clarification on Facebook. It read in part:
Moore County Sheriff's Office Provides Clarification Regarding Missing Person Report
The Moore County Sheriff's Office confirms that on February 22, 2026, at approximately 1:38 a.m., a relative of 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin approached a deputy at a local business and reported him missing. He was subsequently entered into a national missing person database.
Following that report, federal authorities informed the Sheriff's Office that they are conducting an active investigation in Florida involving Martin. At their request, the missing person case information has been turned over to federal investigators.
The Moore County Sheriff's Office had no prior history involving Martin before the missing person report.
