TVH 11 in Little Rock, Arkansas, reported yesterday that Will Jones, the prosecuting attorney for the Sixth Judicial District, declared that the use of deadly force during an ATF raid on Bryan Malinowski’s home in Little Rock was justified under Arkansas law. The case has been followed extensively by the Second Amendment Foundation, TTAG and other pro-gun media outlets. Jones’ statement follows inquiries from four Arkansas Republican congressmen and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who requested documents from the Arkansas State Police regarding the raid.

The incident occurred on March 19, when ATF agents and Arkansas law enforcement executed a search warrant on Malinowski’s residence, suspecting him of illegally selling firearms without a license. Malinowski, who reportedly fired at the agents, was shot in the head during the raid and succumbed to his injuries two days later.

According to an affidavit, Malinowski sold at least six firearms that were later recovered in various crimes across the U.S., and three of these firearms were purchased by undercover ATF agents. Malinowski, however, wasn’t just some criminal schlepp, he was executive director of the Little Rock airport and reportedly sold and collected firearms as a hobby.

Jones provided a detailed timeline of the raid in his letter to ATF Special Agent Joshua Jackson:

– Pre-raid: ATF agents were seen covering the home’s doorbell camera.

– 6:02:58 a.m.: A Little Rock patrol officer announced the law enforcement presence using his car’s lights and siren.

– 6:02:59 a.m: ATF agents began knocking on the front door.

– 6:03:27 a.m.: Agents used a ram to breach the door.

– 6:03:43 a.m.: Malinowski fired the first of four shots from his Colt Defender .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun.

– 6:03:44 a.m.: An ATF agent returned fire, shooting three times from his M4 and getting injured.

Post-raid, Arkansas State Police officials searched the home and surrounding area for evidence and interviewed witnesses.

Jones explained that Arkansas law justifies a law enforcement officer’s use of deadly force if the officer reasonably believes it is necessary to defend against deadly force. He emphasized that the officers identified themselves by knocking and using lights and sirens and wore attire marked with “ATF” or “POLICE.” When Malinowski shot at the agents, the return of fire by the second agent was deemed a “reasonable belief” to use deadly force.

“Therefore, the use of deadly force by [the ATF agent] was in accordance with Arkansas law and was justified,” Jones stated.

In response, the Malinowski family attorney, Bud Cummins, argued that a search warrant should not equate to a home invasion. Cummins highlighted the brief 28-second interval between the knock and the breach, questioning its adequacy, especially for a “low-level violation.”

It also occurred when Malinowski and his wife were dead asleep. Who would be able to wake up, get suitably dressed and answer a door in 28 seconds from a dead sleep? And then come smashing through the door shouting. Most armed homeowners would respond with a gun in hand if they could even get to it that quickly, which Malinowski did. ATF agents knew were Malinowski worked, knew his work schedule and could have easily apprehended him as he showed up at work and then executed a search warrant on his home if necessary. Malinowski, as executive director of the Little Rock airport, was hardly a hardened criminal who needed to be taken down through a dynamic entry.

“A U.S. citizen was given 28 seconds before his home was forcefully invaded by armed government intruders,” Cummins said. “[Bryan Malinowski] was killed in front of his wife. This is far from over.” He also raised concerns about the Fourth Amendment, suggesting it demands more protection than what was afforded in this case.

Cummins also said this in his statement:

The state’s investigation didn’t attempt to make independent judgments about whether ATF violated the law when they broke down Mr. and Mrs. Malinowski’s front door. But that question should be a matter of grave concern for the rest of us.

Mr. Jones’s letter states armed agents waited a mere 28 seconds after knocking and before breaking down the Malinowski front door.

Legally, law enforcement must give the person inside a reasonable amount of time to come to the door to admit them voluntarily before forcibly entering. A search warrant is not supposed to necessarily be a license for a home invasion, especially during an investigation of such a low-level violation with such little risk involved in the search.

Read the complete statement from Jones justifying the shooting and Cummins’ statement, critical of the prosecuting attorney’s decision.

 

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45 COMMENTS

  1. Republicans are f*ing p*sies.

    They better start pushing back on this nonsense, or we’ll find and elect people who will. And no one will like those people.

      • It was a despicable, cowardly Home Invasion and the Home Owner justifiably responded accordingly. Anything less than the aforementioned is a Whitewash. Out of all the crack of dawn jack booted thugs with an obvious mob mentality not one was man enough to put an end to it or has one stood up since and said they were misled or resigned, etc. Their inexcusable actions will weigh on them until one spills the beans.

    • Start the prosecution at the top, because the underlings only act to serve their masters expressed pleasure. Behavior like this begins at the top.

  2. Who would be able to wake up, get suitably dressed and answer a door in 28 seconds from a dead sleep?

    If it happened in the middle of the day, that wouldn’t be enough time for most to walk across the house, look outside, then walk over to open the door. If you’re asleep, and it’s still dark, you would be very disoriented, so it would take even longer. Then, most people would need to put on some clothes before answering the door. And of course you would want to look outside before answering the door.

    Wasn’t it reported that they cut the power? What if he noticed that the power was out with someone banging on the door, then breaking in? Does his bedroom have a window facing the street? Most master bedrooms are in the back of the house. Regardless, he may not have had time to look anyway.

    • I have seen multiple no knock warrants served on actual gang members that were less kill squad than this scenario.

    • Yes, perhaps the police could should consider giving more time to the subject of the warrant so they could be better prepared to greet the officers, just as in this situation:

      “Killing of 4 officers underscores risks police face when serving warrants
      BY BEN FINLEY AND MAKIYA SEMINERA
      Updated 5:04 AM EDT, May 2, 2024

      RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Arrest warrants must be served to alleged criminals if society is going to function. But there is no guarantee of safety for police officers knocking on their doors.

      The grim risks came into stark relief Monday when four law enforcement officers were killed in North Carolina while serving an arrest warrant. The attack in Charlotte left four other officers wounded and became the worst attack on police in the U.S. since 2016.

      The tragedy underscores the limits of even the best-trained officers and the unpredictability of the alleged criminals being served.”

      “2 Georgia police officers shot, wounded serving warrant
      Suspect killed in return fire
      Updated: Dec 12, 2016, 6:40 PM
      Published: Dec 12, 2016, 6:50 PM

      A man shot and wounded two Georgia police officers executing a search warrant early Monday, prompting officers to return fire, killing him, authorities said.“

      Yes, clearly the subjects of these warrants need more time to greet the officers.

      • Well. praise jeebus, miner. We’ve seen the light. Thanks to your efforts we’re all going to vote biden.

      • Tell me you are either disingenuous or utterly ignorant of baseline competent police operations without telling me.

      • In your first story, they had an ARREST warrant (not to be confused with a search warrant). They were after a known criminal (ex-felon) who had previously fled from law enforcement. How is that remotely the same as serving a SEARCH warrant because they thought some full-time employed, normal person should have a license for making a few legal bucks on the side? Please explain that to us? Also explain your position on Breonna Taylor. We already know it, btw. You love it when the state flexes on the little guy as long as they appear to be on the “other” political team. It’s funny how you guys hate the local police, but love the federal police.

        Your second story proves my point! They served a SEARCH warrant at 2:30 a.m. That creates a dangerous situation, as we keep seeing over and over again. The police lived, and the person being served the search warrant died on this one. Just to be clear on your position, you wanted them to break into Breonna’s apartment much sooner, correct?

  3. ATF agents knew were Malinowski worked, knew his work schedule and could have easily apprehended him as he showed up at work and then executed a search warrant on his home if necessary.

    I don’t think they could have apprehended him since it wasn’t an arrest warrant. But, they could have approached him as he was getting off work. Then he would have a chance to cooperate.

    Notice how the Feds managed to arrest their cultivated “terrorists” without a predawn raid.

  4. “Oh yeah we totally followed the rules and identified ourselves, you can tell because we had to obstruct the one damn thing that could have proven that.”
    These ghouls will just lie every time they kill someone about *them* being the danger. Anyone who buys this is a fool and those house memebers needs to press this harder, but we all know they won’t because they are spineless.

  5. The home occupants never heard the ATF announce who they were. The ATF did not identify them selves by voice when they came crashing through the door into a dark home (they had cut power to the home), there was no way to visually identify them in the dark with their lights blinding the ‘just wakened from sleep’ occupants no matter what they were wearing. Lights and siren on a car outside could have been for a neighbor or for something else, it wasn’t adequate ‘notice’ as there was nothing that indicated it was specifically for the home occupants. The home occupants could not tell who was at the door by viewing the ring door bell if they could have done so, could not see the ATF logos as the ATF had covered the ring door bell camera.

    From the inside of the home this looked exactly like a criminal home invasion. The man acted to defend his home from exactly what it looked like.

    The ATF ‘murdered’ Bryan for what is basically the equivalent of the civil traffic violation of driving without a drivers license.

    • “…murdered…for what is basically the equivalent of the civil traffic violation of driving without a drivers license.”

      *Alleged minor traffic violation. They didn’t have any proof when they murdered him.

      • That’s true, zero proof. The search warrant was a ‘fishing expedition’ trying to find proof.

  6. We are WAY OVERDUE for a simple national standard on how government agencies can execute search and arrest warrants and (more importantly) how quickly they can breach a home–especially in non-urgent situations.

  8. According to an affidavit, Malinowski sold at least six firearms that were later recovered in various crimes across the U.S., and three of these firearms were purchased by undercover ATF agents.

    So, the ATF bought three of the six firearms that were used in crimes? The ATF is still buying firearms for criminals?

    • that’s about right. Almost ~60% of firearms recovered from criminals, or from crime scenes (crimes committed by gang members), prior to being recovered were at one time in ATF custody and had been recorded as destroyed by the ATF.

      Those numbers the ATF gives as recovered firearms? They include ones recovered recovered from criminals, or from crime scenes (crimes committed by gang members), AFTER they had been ‘officially’ destroyed and documented and witnessed as destroyed by the ATF.

    • Or, the ATF committed crimes with the firearms purchased.

      So let’s see if I get this straight:
      I as a normal citizen, cannot claim self-defense if I initiate as the aggressor, but ATF and PD can.

      This entire episode is morally indefensible, even if it might be considered a “justified shooting” (to which I strongly disagree. Failure to wear and use body cameras = immediate loss of qualified immunity, IMHO).

      • So you think the ATF has morals?
        It appears to me they are the hit men of theBiden.
        I’m just wondering when we are going to have a TV(propaganda) series True Stories of The BATFE.
        ( the show starts with a Jack Webb voice)
        There are over a million criminal gunm owners in America and it’s our job to find and execute every one of them.
        Justice has no limitations and We are here to serve out justice.

  9. Why aren’t we calling this what it was? Murder. There is absolutely no justification here at all.

  10. Everyone involved in the murder should be ordered to testify in front of congress. First question? To protect your family what would your in the dark reaction be to a surprise crack of dawn door crashing Home Invasion?

    The Arkansas prosecutor wants you to believe should you catch a cop raping someone and you pull a gun on the cop and the cop shoots you dead the cop isn’t to be charged with rape or murder. Everything and I mean Everything that happened is the result of a blatant Home Invasion one would expect to come from criminals with a mile long rap sheet.

    • “Criminals with a mile long rap sheet”, well it is the ATF, so yep, mile long rap sheets doing what smart gangs do.

    • What kind or drugs are you smoking? LE serving a warrant issued by a judge is “rape” and you should be able to shoot at them?

    • The ATF did this because they could. Right and wrong had nothing to do with this.
      There were too many other options where 1 or 2 agents at most could have easily without incident taken care of business.
      Had there been no other options would be one thing, but they had multiple other options and yet they chose the death squad approach and the agents and their superiors(on inferiors) should all be held accountable.

  11. At least that States Attorney and his relatives won’t have their taxes audited repeatedly.

  12. They investigated themselves and they did nothing wrong.

    This was a person with a job, a family, a house and stuff to lose. This was a criminal offense where there was little chance of evidence getting destroyed, it’s hard to flush a gun after all. Although you can certainly it’s plausible he was a straw buyer you can’t say he was accused of any violent offenses or direct involvement with them. These criteria were what were outlined to do a no knock warrant. If the no-knock warrants wasn’t mandated but used anyways, isn’t that a level of negligent homicide?

    Sure he would have tried to beat the rap, but he almost certainly would not have tried to beat the ride. A call to his lawyer telling him to turn himself in would have been a far more appropriate solution here.

  13. I can see no tactical reason to disable the Ring Cam that is not criminal in nature – corrections from tactical experts appreciated.

    It will be interesting to see who replaces the late Malinowski at the airport.

    It also crossed my mind he might have been safer at an airport with a different name, but that’s just crazy talk…

    …deplorable crazy talk at that.

    • Were they any repercussions to Waco or Randy Weaver? Didn’t thunk so. FunFact: Green tip penetrates up to level 4 body armor🙄

      • Are you trying to give me a conniption fit? 😉 No green tip is a level 3+ plate threat on the old rating where it was typically stopped easily by ceramic with ballistic fiber backing plates or most steel plates (steel tip of 855 got forced back into lead of the bullet and expanded surface area preventing penetration that fmj would get) while being able to penetrate most uhmwpe plates (lightweight ballistic plastic). Now it is the standard to beat for rifle threat level 2 with level one including 5.56 m193 (good luck steel) and 7.62×51 NATO. With all that said the newer 855a1 (brown/bronze tip) with go through any wearable steel armor, uhmwpe only, and more than a few ceramics up to level 4 which will stop most anything 5.56 often including the tungsten carbide cores.

  14. lets be real
    once his eyes saw “atf”
    his mind saw waco
    and ruby ridge
    and “j6er treatment – dead ahead” if he allowed himself to be taken into custody
    just like most folks would do
    who have been keeping up with current events
    sidebar:
    one of these days
    somebody who knows the atf is on to him
    and has a terminal illness
    and no friends
    and no family
    is going to make sure
    that the atf has a really bad day
    if they try busting down his front door at 0600
    its just a matter of time
    and btw
    im in perfect health
    have plenty of friends
    and im married with 4 adult sons

  15. … we’ll be reading about some guy, AKA “sound awake”, that was “visited” by the elf bee-eye at zero dark-thirty after a warrant was issued by Google following a threatening posting, as determined by their AI Internet monitoring program.
    He will be missed by his wife and 4 sons

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