A 29-year-old woman faces felony charges after she allegedly drove into a closed Secret Service checkpoint near Mar-a-Lago, aimed her SUV at an agent and two officers, crashed through a private estate gate, and led police on a pursuit that ended with her pit bull shot and killed.
Alexa Rae Scharf of Loxahatchee, Florida, drove her gray Hyundai SUV into a secured checkpoint at the Bath & Tennis Club's west parking lot in Palm Beach around 6:05 p.m. on Tuesday, August 26, CBS12 reported. No one was authorized to enter the checkpoint at the time. The checkpoint sits adjacent to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on South Ocean Boulevard.
What followed was a roughly three-and-a-half-hour ordeal that shut down a stretch of one of Palm Beach's most prominent roads, put multiple law enforcement officers in physical danger, and ended with Scharf pulled from her vehicle by force, and her dog dead on the scene.
A probable cause affidavit lays out the sequence. Scharf pulled into the closed checkpoint, parked beside the vehicle-screening tents, stepped out, and turned on a hose. Secret Service Agent McGear approached and asked a simple question: "Who are you?"
Scharf's answer: "I'm here for the car wash."
McGear tried to photograph the SUV's license plate to check whether Scharf had any authorization to be there. She didn't wait for an answer. She got back behind the wheel, ignored repeated commands to stop, and drove toward McGear, forcing the agent to move out of her path to avoid being struck.
Scharf then drove less than half a mile to an oceanfront estate at 1236 South Ocean Boulevard. When McGear caught up, the property's entrance gate had been knocked down and was visibly damaged. Scharf was allegedly walking around the grounds. The homeowners, who declined to comment the following day, had not invited her.
Palm Beach police officers and Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies moved up the driveway of the estate and ordered Scharf to get out of the vehicle. She returned to the running SUV instead. Then, according to the affidavit, she drove directly toward Palm Beach Police Captain Watson, forcing him to move quickly to avoid being hit.
As Scharf backed down the driveway, Officer Castineiras arrived and ordered her to stop. She kept driving toward him, too, forcing him out of her path. She maneuvered between marked police cruisers and fled south on South Ocean Boulevard with officers in pursuit, lights and sirens running.
That means, by the affidavit's account, Scharf aimed her vehicle at three separate law enforcement personnel, a Secret Service agent and two Palm Beach police officers, in the span of minutes. The incident is the latest in a pattern of security incidents near Mar-a-Lago that have included an armed man shot and killed after breaching the estate's secure perimeter in February 2026 and a woman who arrived with a gun and what she called an "urgent message" for President Trump in July 2025.
The pursuit ended in a driveway in the 1500 block of South Ocean Boulevard. Police conducted a felony stop, a high-risk procedure used when officers believe the suspect poses a serious threat, and repeatedly ordered Scharf to turn off the SUV and come out. She refused.
Officers placed stop sticks beneath the tires to prevent another flight. They broke the rear windshield and the rear driver-side window. They ultimately opened the driver's door, removed Scharf by force, and placed her in custody.
The arrest did not end the danger. When officers opened a door of the SUV, a pit bull inside the vehicle jumped over Scharf, charged at the officers, and bit one of them. An officer shot the dog twice. Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control and a veterinarian responded and attempted to treat the animal, but it died.
Palm Beach police said an initial on-scene investigation found no policy violations in the shooting of the dog. The officer who fired has not been placed on administrative leave. The condition of the officer who was bitten has not been released. Threats to the safety of those tasked with protecting the president and his properties have drawn increasing attention in recent months.
The Secret Service declined to comment on the incident.
Police said Scharf faces two counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle, felony fleeing, and resisting an officer without violence. The probable cause affidavit's final paragraph, however, cites probable cause for three counts of resisting an officer with violence, a discrepancy that has not been publicly reconciled. Whether Scharf will ultimately face the charges listed in the affidavit, the charges stated by police, or both remains unclear.
Court records reveal this was not Scharf's first brush with the law behind the wheel. Palm Beach Gardens police arrested her on a DUI charge in 2018. She was cited in a speeding case in July of this year, and a driver's license suspension was reported for her on August 17, just eight days before the incident near Mar-a-Lago. Whether that suspension was still active on August 26 is not confirmed in available records, but the timeline raises an obvious question about whether Scharf was legally allowed to drive at all that evening.
South Ocean Boulevard, one of Palm Beach's main arteries, was closed between Via Agape and 1236 South Ocean Boulevard from approximately 6:00 p.m. until approximately 9:30 p.m., three and a half hours of disruption for residents and anyone else trying to use the road on a Tuesday evening. The security environment around Mar-a-Lago remains a persistent concern, particularly given recent alleged plots targeting the president at public events.
No motive has been offered for Scharf's actions. The only explanation she gave anyone that evening was the line she delivered to Agent McGear at the checkpoint: "I'm here for the car wash." The checkpoint is a Secret Service security installation. There is no car wash.
Several key questions remain unanswered. It is not clear whether President Trump was at Mar-a-Lago at the time, whether the estate was placed on elevated security status, or what court will handle Scharf's case. The growing list of security threats involving the president's residences and public appearances makes each unanswered question more urgent.
When law enforcement officers have to physically dodge a moving vehicle three times in one evening just to stay alive, and the suspect's only explanation is a nonsense line about a car wash, the system had better make sure the charges stick.
