Local media continue their coverage of the BATF forcible entry raid that ultimately led to the death of Bryan Malinowski, a respected member of the Little Rock, Ark., community. Instead of picking up the Executive Director of the Little Rock Airport at work, the fine folks at F-Troop rolled up in 10 vehicles at oh-dark-thirty as if taking down a man who prayed at an abortion clinic a terrorist mastermind.
Mr. Malinowski came onto the radar of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives (and really big Fires) because he enjoyed collecting firearms as a hobby. Part of collecting, of course, is selling specimens and Bryan Malinowski didn’t have a license to sell guns. Why didn’t Malinowski have a license? Probably because he followed the law and because he wasn’t in the “business” of selling firearms.
The South Arkansas Reckoning reprinted a statement and video from the attorneys of Malinowski’s family. ABC7 Little Rock had the videos on YouTube. We share both here.
Video released today from a neighbor’s camera shows agents arriving on March 19 in 10 separate vehicles. In a second recording from the Malinowski doorbell camera, you can see agents donning full tactical gear and holding automatic rifles in a ready position taping over the lens of the doorbell camera, which ended that video record.
Bryan Malinowski was the Executive Director of the Little Rock Airport. He was married for 25 years to his wife Maer Malinowski. They lived in West Little Rock. He enjoyed collecting coins and firearms. He was a pilot and held multiple ratings. He was a voracious reader.
As part of his hobby of collecting, buying and selling various items Bryan occasionally set up a table at local gun shows where he mainly displayed guns and coins. In Arkansas a private seller may legally sell a firearm without holding a federal firearm license (FFL) and without filling out forms or conducting background checks. A private seller may do so until such time they cross a subjectively defined barrier becoming “a person engaged in the business of selling firearms.” As stated, there is no bright line test. It is a subjective test. A citizen’s ability to sell firearms without a license is sometimes referred to as the “gun show loophole.”
There are compelling arguments for and against “closing the gun show loophole.” “Gun show loophole” bills have been introduced in Congress many times over the past 25 years, but none have passed. Last year, ATF proposed new regulations to effectively tighten the “loophole.”
According to the search warrant affidavit in this case, ATF suspected Bryan Malinowski of meeting at least parts of their subjective definition of a “person engaged in the business of selling firearms. Mr. Malinowski’s family and close friends don’t think he had any inkling ATF was concerned about his gun show sales. They are all confident that he would have never jeopardized his career in airport management by knowingly flaunting a regulation pertaining to his weekend hobby.
This appears to be the entirety of his suspected criminal activity—suspicion he had met subjective standards triggering the need to buy a $200 FFL therefore making subsequent sales illegal. He was suspected of being outside the “gun-show loophole.”
ATF surveilled Bryan for multiple days. They followed him in cars. They watched him at gun shows and even purchased firearms from him. They placed a tracking device on his vehicle, and then obtained a warrant to search his car and phone. They executed that warrant at 6:00 am on March 19, 45 minutes before first light and over one hour before sunrise.
At this stage there is no publicly available evidence showing whether agents knocked on the door or announced their presence, adequately identifying themselves. Bryan’s wife Maer only heard loud banging immediately followed by the crash of the front door being forced open. Absent exigent circumstances (danger of losing evidence-drugs down the toilet; propensity for violence or escape) case law requires law enforcement officers to give dwelling occupants a reasonable time to come to the door and let them in.
Bryan Malinowski was asleep but rose to the sound of the door crashing and located a firearm. His wife believed the noise must have been intruders and she fully believes her husband thought the same. He loaded a magazine into a pistol and emerged from the master bedroom into a hallway leading indirectly to the front entryway. He reached a corner in the hall and looked around it to see several unidentifiable figures already several steps inside his home.
We do not know who shot first but it appears that Bryan shot approximately three times at a decidedly low angle, probably at the feet of the intruders who were roughly 30 feet away.
Agents immediately returned fire and struck him at least once in the head, causing massive injury to his skull and brain. Mrs. Malinowski, in thin night clothes, was roughly taken out of the house in 34-degree weather and placed in custody in the back seat of a police car, prohibited from going to a neighbor’s home for clothes or to use the bathroom as many as four or five hours.
The Malinowski family believes the already known facts amply demonstrate ATF’s tactics on March 19 were reckless and incompetent, and completely unnecessary.
Criminal investigators should determine with precision whether the agents knocked, whether they announced their presence, identity, and purpose, and whether they waited a reasonable amount of time before they breached. The Malinowski home is almost 3000 square feet. It was 6am. Mr. Malinowski apparently had no idea he was under law enforcement scrutiny. The justification for the search involved suspicion of a crime carrying a puny 0–6-month U.S. Sentencing guideline range which typically results in a sentence of probation or more often probation ending with complete dismissal (pre-trial diversion).
After the Breonna Taylor shooting in 2020 under similar circumstances President Biden issued EO 14074 (5/25/2022) directing the implementation of certain policies including restriction on “no-knock” searches and requirements that federal agents utilize body-worn cameras (BWCs) when executing warrants.
Deputy Attorney General Monaco issued a memo on 6/7/2021 permitting the use of BWCs when federal agents execute search warrants and on 9/13/2021 she issued a separate memo regarding chokeholds and restricting the use of no-knock warrants.
On 6/2/2022 ATF issued policies mandating the use of BWCs during pre-planned execution of search warrants for all federal agents. The accompanying policy for Task Force Officers establishes a presumption of expedited release to the public of BWC recordings involve death “as soon as practical.”
In spite of requests to ATF on behalf of the Malinowski family, no BWC recordings have been released. ATF has made no public statement since the March 19 shooting of Bryan Malinowski though it wouldn’t be unusual for ATF to convene a press conference to put the public at ease and explain what happened and why it was necessary.
Most of what we know comes from the affidavit in the search warrant application. A reminder: only convictions establish guilt. Even indictments are mere unrebutted accusations. An affidavit is even less. It is a statement of suspicion which quite often turns out to be inaccurate or incomplete. It would be grossly improper for anyone to suggest any U.S. citizen guilty of any crime based only on the contents of an affidavit in a warrant application. Even so, in the search warrant affidavit Bryan Malinowski is never accused of knowingly selling any gun to anyone he shouldn’t have. It only suggests he (perhaps unknowingly) crossed a subjective line which put him in a different class of weekend gun seller and obligated him to buy a $200 FFL license. A malum prohibitum offense.
“Malum prohibitum” is an act that is not inherently immoral but is prohibited by statute. Common examples of malum prohibitum actions include jaywalking and regulatory violations.
The evidence available to the public surely doesn’t portray the BATFE (and really big Fires) in a positive light. They don’t even have allegations that he sawed off the barrel of a shotgun a quarter-inch too short to hang their hats on for the heavy-handed assault on his house.
And they wonder why so many think so little of their agency’s reputation. But then again, when you have an half-wit appointed as director by President Puddin’ Brains, we shouldn’t expect much more. Moreover, no one makes a stronger case for abolishing the BATF than the BATF itself.
I want to know the actions of the local sheriff throughout the entirety of this fiasco… did he know, did he support, did he have deputies w/the clowns of ATF etc etc etc. He is the one that can be held most accountable locally and immediately
The Federal government often deems it unimportant to coordinate with or even notify the local sheriff of their activities, and even when they decide to do so, they are always the ones in command.
The video posted in this thread shows what appears to black/white police vehicles (as used by local PD) appears to be escorting the Stazi caravan,. The role of the local popo in this examined.
Well. I’d tell you guys my opinion on what needs to be done, But Boch would headline it in the next article on what not to do, and what not to even talk about.
The ATF’s MO is to bypass local law enforcement entirely unless they believe they can gather useful information from them immediately before or after a raid is conducted. If you think the FBI is aloof or high-handed with state/local law enforcement, then you should know that the ATF is in a league of its own.
“…then you should know that the ATF is in a league of its own.”
… then you should know that the ATF is in a criminal gang of its own.
FIFY
😁
they will investigate themselves and rule they did nothing wrong.
as do many law enforcement agencies under similar circumstances. Very rare that city or county agents of the law get anything but “no billed” for killing someone even rarer that a federal agent or agency does
And in the rare event that someone gets prosecuted, the DA’s office often does a terrible job of making the case, resulting in an acquittal.
You guys should take a look at all the leftard comments left at the Arkansas times.
https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/03/21/judge-unseals-documents-in-malinowski-case#hyvor-talk-view
Holy fucking shit. Everything short of celebrating his death. I’m really starting to view Leftists as subhuman filth (exaggerating).
F-Troop using their patented “shock-and-awe” tactics. And where Rules and Directives are seen as mere suggestions.
How awful. What is this Russia for pete’s sake ?!?
So many easier ways to do this. Maybe call the guy first? Seems like a no knock at dawn raid should be last ditch. Holy moly.
If only he were of a different ethnic persuasion, then the story would have some traction i bet
Seems like they could have caught him at his place of employment, which would be a well-lit and “gun free” place.
These raids are done purely for real-world training, because they offer an almost guaranteed fight for the macho SWAT guys. It’s a completely stupid waste of life, waste of tax dollars, and it is absent of even a faint regard for civil liberty.
Yep, gives the SWAT-fascists a reason to play with their fancy night vision gear. What a bunch of techno-thugs.
NOPE — They’re done for Real World Intimidation.
People who might become targets of Federal Assassinations should have plenty of cameras out in the open for the goons to deactivate and hidden ones that record to the cloud in case the premises are burned down.
Most likely the local sheriff had little to no knowledge/involvement in this action. Doubtful the BATFE involved any state/locals in this “investigation”.
The need for a 6 a.m. no knock warrant was probably zero, evidence was going nowhere. I see nothing from the article about an indictment/complaint which would mean an arrest warrant.
Looks like another BATFE clown show, if not they would be sharing video and evidence.
But F-Troop have their SWAT teams. They have to use them sometimes to justify the budget expenses
As much as I think the ATF should suck a bag of dicks, the information so far released indicated that the homeowner had purchased 150 firearms in the past 2.5 years, including 25 copies of the same Glock 21. At least two firearms recovered from crime scenes had been purchased by him, with one recovered less than two weeks after his purchase. A lawyer could argue that he was not in the business of buying and selling, but it’s a grey area.
That said, the ATF should have arrested him politely. But he knew he was being surveilled by air assets. And when you are on the receiving end of a raid, you take your chances when you use your gun. If he hadn’t opened fire, he’d probably be out on bond right now.
As Sun Tzu said, never fight when the enemy is strong, and don’t fight at the time and place of their choosing.
The victim may have legitimately needed to be scrutinized, but the takeaway from this is how the ATF chose to use an o-dark-thirty use of massive force for extraction instead of simply meeting with him at any normal time beforehand. Absolutely unnecessary use of shock and awe. I wonder if the agents even lost any sleep at the fact that they used a procedure that pretty much guaranteed loss of life.
really screwy so many good cops getting hung out to dry for battling violent criminals while these goons play blitzkreig with contributing society members and are unaccountable.
OR perhaps these goons could do secure the Southern border.
The border is secure. I’ve been to the border. Get this. Four years ago, women didn’t have borders.
pretty soon we’ll all have venezuelan boarders.
They dont care about our border.
It’s called a “reprisal action”.
Senate Judiciary Committee is the body to call the ATF to account for their lawlessness.
List of members: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/
If you senator is on the list email them on this subject.
It takes lowlifes to participate in such a baseless raid on a home, hopefully a decent judge and jury will also see these individuals as the jack booted thugs they are.
Qualified Immunity…
Nothing qualified about it.
Had no idea he was under surveillance.
Big mistake.
The way the BATFE has been operating in the last 30 years , hmmmm, well, uh , yeah.
Mister Makinowski should have had a 12 gauge shotgun with a rifled barrel loaded with buckshot.
4inch cannon and grape shot, and its legal.
Iron security doors and window covers are a must these days. Not against criminals, but against the jack-booted thugs.
Extra Judicial execution.
Kill a few to cower the rest.
Airport operations give one the opportunity to notice the comings and goings of those who prefer that their comings and goings go unnoticed. I wonder what information Mr. Malinowski accidentally stumbled upon. Somehow, I don’t think it’s a complete coincidence that Arkansas is the home turf of the Hill and Bill gang.
Yep, what ATF did is yet another case of execuition by firing squad of grossly incompetent jack booted thugs. Yet another example of horrific incompetence by another bunch of feds. A good start would be a 25% reduction of all federal LE employees starting at the top since that is where the rot starts (ATF should be 100%).
The system isn’t broken. The system is working exactly as intended, which is why it needs to be dramatically changed. They established the circumstances of their “serving a warrant” via no-knock methodology in order to execute this man. Have no illusions. This was their intent from the start. This is far from the first time they have utilized these tactics to kill someone. We’ll probably never know the real reason why they wanted this man dead, or maybe they just love living out their gestapo fantasies. The bodycam footage will never be released as it will be “lost” or “corrupted” or “accidentally deleted/destroyed”.
Countless gang members in Chicago and elsewhere are being arrested in possession of illegally obtained and installed full-auto “switches” on their Glocks, and the F-Troop could pick up super easy federal convictions with any of them, as the perps and the cases against them are essentially a gimmie for a conviction on each and every one. But no, they ignore all of them (just like Chicago PD ignores them) and instead go after hobbyist collectors selling their unwanted private property at gun shows in accordance with the law. They do not follow the path to the easiest arrest, they choose the one most likely to end in the target’s death.
Looks like I offended WordUnimpressive yet again and got moderated again.
The ATF essentially murdered an innocent man, period.
Exactly, and nothing will happen.
Wheres the George Floyd riots?
video shows ATF taping over security camera during Little Rock raid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RznJNM9NQGE
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.
Don’t worry; they will do a thorough investigation of themselves and find no wrongdoing.
AS SOON AS THAT PAINT WENT OVER MY DOOR BELL CAMERA..THE DOOR WOULD BE SWISS CHEESE..
I like watching Janet Reno twirk.
Everybody working this raid deserves significant prison time. Every single one.
Because you know the professional dude running a major facility requiring federal clearance of all kinds wouldn’t have been open to you know, just a professional, normal conversation, or civilly responded to a polite at the door search warrant.
The ATF is sending a Clear and Definitive Message to ALL Law Abiding Citizens that THIS is what they are going to do you and how they will do it WHEN they come for YOUR Guns.
And they are going to get away with it so long as Joe Biden Remains in Office
Oh, one more thing:
ATF conducted a ‘No-Knock’ Warrant because they were desperately afraid this guy might flush the ‘evidence’,
his AR’s,
down his toilet,
or so thats what they told the Judge who signed the warrant.
bidens killer goon squad! If I hear a break in at my home I will aim center mass and head as I was trained! EFF the batf! Come and take it M Fs
Don’t wear a hat.
If Mr. Malinowski was a black man, all of those ATF agents would be vilified and brought up on charges of murder by now. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Only in a country with a corrupt media can these things happen over and over again. The Deep State does exist. Donald Trump mistakenly thought he could destroy this Deep State by replacing the Department heads. I hope he is elected to the Presidency and corrects that mistake by cleaning house of all Department management. They know that he’s coming for them and that’s why they will do everything in their power to keep him from winning the next election. That’s why he is under indictment all over this country. They are definitely out to get him.
Trump is not going to win.
Maybe win the popular vote but that doesn’t matter.
It’s the duly elected officials (who are they) vote that matters.
Electoral College, time to change that. One State equals one vote as in if the State of Despair carries Trump that’s one vote for Trump, if the State of Confusion Carrie’s theBiden that’s one vote.
If it’s a 25 split we have two presidents.
Oh thatd be fun.
So again, a Neptune Spear assault versus picking him up at work. When will this end, or should it be, how will this end?
The fellow was assassinated because a local jury would probably not have convicted him & BATFE knew it.
Comments are closed.