When the US Secret Service has used lethal force, and how rare it really is

When the US Secret Service has used lethal force, and how rare it really is

The fatal shooting of an armed man who breached security at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday has drawn attention to a part of the US Secret Service’s work that the American public rarely sees. While the agency is constantly associated with guns and close protection, deadly encounters involving its agents are uncommon.

In its 160-year history, the Secret Service has been involved in only a small number of incidents in which agents killed someone in the line of duty. Almost all of them involved immediate threats near protected individuals or secure locations.

According to officials, President Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time of Sunday’s shooting. Two Secret Service agents and a sheriff’s deputy were involved after the man crossed the security perimeter.

The agency says its entire system is designed to prevent situations from reaching that point. Threat assessment teams analyse behaviour and intelligence so that risks are identified early, long before an agent has to make a split-second decision, the New York Times reported.

Early cases tied to impersonation and escape attempts

One of the earliest recorded fatal shootings took place in February 1920 at a train platform in New York City. A man known as “Big Ed” McGuinness was shot by a Secret Service agent after he tried to flee arrest. McGuinness had been impersonating a federal agent as part of a gang that cheated saloon owners by posing as law enforcement.

An assassination attempt at Blair House

The most historically significant case came in November 1950, when two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman outside Blair House. Secret Service officer Leslie Coffelt shot and killed one of the attackers, Griselio Torresola, during the gunfight.

Coffelt was mortally wounded and died later that day. He remains the only Secret Service officer to have died while directly protecting a sitting president.

Fence jumpers and armed intrusions

In July 1976, a man carrying a three-foot metal pipe climbed over the White House fence and moved deep inside the grounds. A Secret Service officer shot and killed him. President Gerald Ford was inside the residence at the time.

Similar concerns about proximity and intent appear in later cases. In January 1980, a man opened fire inside the Secret Service’s Denver field office, killing an agent before being shot dead. He had a known history of mental illness and had previously tried to breach White House security.

Investigations and diplomatic protection

Not all fatal encounters involved presidents directly. In 1983, an agent shot and killed an armed suspect during a counterfeit money investigation in California. In 2022, officers killed a man attempting to break into the Washington home of the Peruvian ambassador after efforts to subdue him failed.

The Secret Service is responsible not only for protecting U.S. leaders but also for safeguarding foreign diplomats in the Washington area, which can place agents in volatile situations far from public view.

Recent years and heightened scrutiny

Two recent incidents stand out. In July 2024, a Secret Service countersniper killed a gunman who opened fire at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania, killing a spectator and injuring Trump. The episode was widely described as one of the agency’s most serious security failures.

In March 2025, agents shot and killed a man near the White House who was believed to be armed and seeking “suicide by cop.” He was later found to be unarmed.

Taken together, the record shows how rarely the Secret Service uses lethal force, and how closely those moments are tied to perceived imminent threats. Each incident tends to trigger scrutiny, internal reviews and public debate, precisely because they are exceptions in an agency built around prevention rather than confrontation.