Bullets before sunrise: The ATF killing of Bryan Keith Malinowski
Widow, mother, and sister of slain airport executive to attend Congressional hearings this week in hope of learning more about the ATF's killing of Mr. Malinowski in the predawn raid of his home.
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By Jay C. Grelen, Maumelle Moniteur
Maer Malinowski, who was a step behind her husband, Bryan Malinowski, when ATF agents shot him in the head, will attend hearings in Washington this week as Congress seeks answers about the March 19, 2024, predawn homicide in the Malinowskis’ home.
Bud Cummins of Little Rock, a former U.S. Attorney who represents Mrs. Malinowski, will testify before a Congressional subcommittee Wednesday morning at the invitation of U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The hearing is one of many that Mr. Jordan has convened regarding the idea of the weaponization of the federal government.
On Thursday, Mr. Cummins and Mrs. Malinowski will attend a hearing before the full Judicial Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
“Bryan’s family deserves an answer to a simple question — why?,” Mr. Cummins said. “Maybe Congress will be able to find the answer. I don’t honestly think there is a good answer, and if that proves to be the case, I hope Congress finds the problem and fixes it.”
Mr. Jordan scheduled the May 23 hearing after Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, ignored a blunt letter from the chairman demanding details about the raid. Mr. Dettelbach has confirmed that he will attend Thursday. The ATF has offered no detail about the assault, other than to confirm it occurred and that none of the ATF agents wore body cameras. The agency released a heavily redacted copy of the warrant agents obtained to search Malinowski’s home.
Mr. Malinowski’s mother, Barbara Haigh, 81, of Easton, Pennsylvania, and his sister, Lee Ann Maciujec, his junior by four years, will travel by train from Philadelphia on Thursday for that hearing.
“I will drive us to Philly, and then we will take the train,” Mrs. Maciujec said Sunday evening. “It means getting up at 4 a.m. We will be navigating the train and subway, and (Mum) with her walker, but she wants to be there.
“I’m really hoping to hear some accountability. I know there won’t be, but it’s wishful thinking. I have so many questions on the affidavit — what they did, the way they did it. Every time I turn around, there’s more questions and no answers.”
Mother’s Day 2024 fell seven weeks after Bryan’s death. “Mother’s Day was quiet,” said Mrs. Maciujec, who is a Realtor in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Bryan would normally call her, and he would always send her something in the mail. Maer did send something.”
ATF agents opened an investigation of Mr. Malinowski on December 15, 2023, after the Little Rock field office received a tip from Canadian law enforcement that Mr. Malinowski about a gun it had trace to Malinowski. The ATF was pursuing the question of whether Mr. Malinowski needed a Federal Firearms License to buy and sell firearms.
Mr. Malinowski was not aware of the ATF’s interest in his hobby. Agents put a tracking device on Mr. Malinowski’s car and followed him around Central Arkansas. Three agents bought guns undercover from Mr. Malinowski at his table at a gun show. The sales, apparently, were legal. Even at the moment agents shot Mr. Malinowski in the dark hallway in his home just after 6 a.m., he had no inkling ATF was investigating him. He died without knowing. He thought the people he heard breaking into his home were intruders.
Mr. Malinowski was a native of Pennsylvania who earned a degree in airport management from Florida Institute of Technology. After working at airports in Pennsylvania, El Paso, Texas, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2008, he hired on with the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock. In less than a year, he was named deputy director, and in 2019, he became executive director.
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