Attorney is hopeful an agent who participated in the raid of Bryan Malinowski's home will contact him to share what happened the morning ATF agents shot and killed Mr. Malinowski.
Officers are free to speak up about the events that led to the fatal encounter, says Bud Cummins, who represents Mr. Malinowski's widow and other family members.
By Jay C. Grelen, The Arkansas Monitor
Officers who participated in the ATF raid at the home of the executive director of the Little Rock airport are free to speak up about events that led to the fatal shooting of Bryan Malinowski, says the attorney who represents Mr. Malinowski’s widow.
“I have heard indirect rumblings of discontent,” said Bud Cummins, a former U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, “although I haven’t heard from anyone yet. There isn’t anything stopping anyone who was there that morning from contacting me and sharing the truth.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has been silent about the March 19 operation to serve a search warrant at Mr. Malinowski’s home in west Little Rock. Mr. Cummins is optimistic that the family eventually will learn the details.
“I am hopeful there will be whistleblowers at some point,” Mr. Cummins said.
Mr. Malinowski, who had been executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport since 2019, came to the attention of the ATF in Little Rock through an alert from police in Canada, according to the search warrant affidavit. A confidential informant had given Canadian agents a photograph of several firearms. A trace of serial numbers visible in the photo identified Mr. Malinowski as the original purchaser.
Mr. Malinowski bought and sold firearms at gun shows in central Arkansas. He also bought and sold coins, a hobby he picked up as a child in Easton, Pennsylvania.
The ATF opened an investigation into Mr. Malinowski on December 15, 2023. At the request of ATF, the National Tracing Center found that Mr. Malinowski had purchased 92 guns from November 2021 through December 2023.
Based on its three-month investigation, the ATF secured a warrant to search Mr. Malinowski’s home. Ten cars arrived at Mr. Malinowski’s home before sunrise on March 19. The Ring doorbell camera at Mr. Malinowski’s front door recorded agents climbing the front steps. The lead agent then covered the camera lens with tape. There are no more video or audio recordings of events from that point.
The ATF hasn’t released any information about the operation to execute the search warrant.
No one outside the ATF knows whether agents identified themselves before they broke into the house; if they did identify themselves, no one knows whether they waited a reasonable amount of time before knocking open the double doors.
Within seconds of covering the Ring lens, agents were standing in the foyer. Mr. Malinowski, awakened from a dead sleep just after 6 a.m., found a pistol, loaded a clip, and walked down a hall toward the front door with his wife, Maer, close behind.
The hall makes a forty-five degree turn to the left and opens onto the foyer. Apparently, Mr. Malinowski turned the corner toward the front door and saw figures in the dark.
No one outside the ATF knows who fired first. But agents and Mr. Malinowski shot at each other.
“Mr. Malinowski’s gunshots were all pointed, basically, at their feet,” Mr. Cummins said. “This is just me speculating, but I think he was probably thinking, ‘These people must not know we're home. So I'm going to let them know I'm here, I have a gun, and you need to get out of my house.’ And then what happened happened.
“I don't think the Malinowskis had an opportunity to look at their Ring doorbell. They heard a crack, their door crashing, and they thought they were being victimized in a home invasion. And I don't believe they heard anyone say the word ‘police.’
“I think Bryan Malinowski did what almost half of the citizens of Arkansas would do in that circumstance. He heard somebody kicking his door, and he grabbed a pistol.”
This story is based in part on radio host Doc Washburn’s interview with Bud Cummins on The Doc Washburn Show on April 23 on Little Rock radio station 101.1 The Answer. The station broadcasts Mr. Washburn’s show Tuesday through Friday at 6 p.m..Mr. Washburn regularly discusses the Malinowski case.