Screenshot from KLRT news report about the shooting death of Bryan Malinowski by the ATF.

As already reported on TTAG, the ATF went to Bryan Malinowski’s West Little Rock home last month spoiling for a gunfight, and they got one. Now, a good man is dead – the latest victim of ATF’s overly aggressive tactics and complete disregard for the sanctity of human life.

ATF has yet to comment officially on the March 19 killing, other to claim Malinowski fired first. But Malinowski’s family recently released a statement, which confirms what everyone already knew: It is extremely unlikely that the 53-year-old airport executive knew he was trading gunfire with federal agents. It is far more likely Malinowski believed he was defending himself and his wife from armed home invaders.

“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,” Malinowski’s family said in the statement. “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.”

ATF agents shot Malinowski in the head with a carbine at least once. He lingered for two days and then died from his wounds. ATF did not immediately release his body, so the family was not able to donate his organs.

Tactically unsound

The Malinowski family described ATF’s tactics as “reckless and incompetent, and completely unnecessary.”

In their statement, the family points out that ATF had Malinowski under surveillance for days. They had surreptitiously installed a GPS tracker on his vehicle, and undercover ATF agents had made several controlled buys from him at gun shows. More importantly, they knew where he worked and where he lived. They didn’t need to raid his home at zero dark thirty.

“At this stage there is no publicly available evidence showing whether agents knocked on the door or announced their presence, adequately identifying themselves,” the statement reads. “Bryan’s wife Maer only heard loud banging immediately followed by the crash of the front door being forced open.”

ATF had a host of less-lethal arrest options available, any one of which would have spared Malinowski’s life.

ATF stormtroopers prepare to invade Bryan Malinowski’s home as he and his wife peacefully slept.

They could have arrested him at the Clinton National Airport, where he served as executive director. They could have pulled him over on his way home and arrested him in his vehicle. They could have called Malinowski’s attorney and told him to turn in his client.

If agents were dead set on confronting Malinowski at his home, a callout would have been much safer for all involved. Once the home was surrounded, agents could have contacted Malinowski on his cellphone – they knew the number since they had a warrant to search his phone – and ordered him to come out with his hands up. If he didn’t answer his phone, a bullhorn would have sufficed.

A video from a neighbor’s doorbell camera shows that agents arrived at Malinowski’s home in 10 separate vehicles. If they would have activated the emergency lights in all of these squad cars, Malinowski’s entire neighborhood would have been bathed in red flashing lights. Malinowski would have known immediately there were law enforcement officers stacked outside his home and not criminal home invaders.

Finally, agents could have simply slowed down and waited for Malinowski to answer the door, rather than breaching and storming in, which caused the armed confrontation.

“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,” Malinowski’s family said in their statement.

Unfortunately, ATF’s raid planners chose the most dangerous option – the one tactic most likely to end in gunfire – that any seasoned tactical officer would utilize only as a final course of action, after all else had failed.

Potential charges

Malinowski did not have a Federal Firearm License, yet he routinely sold firearms at gun shows. In their search warrant affidavit, ATF suspected he was “a person engaged in the business of selling firearms,” which his family points out is difficult to define.

“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,’” their statement reads. “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.”

Malinowski’s attorney correctly noted that if he had been convicted of his crime, Malinowski would likely have received probation or even pre-trial diversion, not a prison sentence, but such speculation is moot. Malinowski will never have the opportunity to answer ATF’s accusations.

“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,” the family stated.

Takeaways

If a tactical team botched a raid this badly at any real law enforcement agency, careers would end and heads would roll.

At ATF, who knows?

If there even is an internal review, the outcome will be preordained. Awards, commendations and promotions will be showered upon all participants. Never mind that a life was taken – an innocent man was killed because ATF leadership is obsessed with using their SWAT teams.

These type of needless killings will continue. That much is certain. ATF has never learned from its mistakes. Neither Ruby Ridge nor Waco taught them anything about the proper application of force.

In a similar raid last year, more than a dozen ATF agents wearing tactical gear and armed with AR-15s stormed the rural Oklahoma home of Russell Fincher, a high school history teacher, a Baptist pastor and a parttime gun dealer. Thankfully, no one was injured or killed during the confrontation. However, at the time we predicted that if ATF continued deploying its SWAT teams haphazardly, without direction or proper planning – escalating rather than deescalating situations – someone would be killed. Eight months later, Malinowski was shot to death in his home.

Who holds ATF accountable? The Biden-Harris administration certainly won’t. ATF leadership is operating under the administration’s explicit orders. Their agents have become foot soldiers in Joe Biden’s war on our guns.

Unless the agency and is leadership is held accountable, only one question remains: Who will ATF shoot next?

Article courtesy of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. This project wouldn’t be possible without the support of gun owners. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

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48 COMMENTS

  1. I hope they sue the mf’in pants off of all involved. Sickening. The dude probably would have met them with one call to his cell phone.

    • Murdered an innocent man is correct. The Arkansas State Police is investigating and I am sure the gov. is not exactly pleased to say the least. Should be the atf ratbassturds need 9 judges to sign off on anything they do…better yet abolish Gun Control and the atf goes with it.

      • Like infamous Ruby Ridge murderer/FEEB sniper Lon Horuchi all agents involved have likely been transfered “out of state” likely to D.C. to avoid state investigator’s questions. The FEEBs may be indicted in Arkansas but odds are they’ll never see the inside of a criminal court building, civil court for a “wrongful death” maybe, but highly unlikely.

  3. Local Barney Fifes kill black man who unloaded at them: OMGzzzzzOrZ ThEy K1LlInG r Pe3Pl3z!!1!! bUrN 7hE sYsTyM 👇

    Feds kill white man: He should not have been exercising his rights and breaking arbitrary policies we define at will.

  4. The whole raid was intentional. It is a warning to those who won’t play ball. Don’t like our arbitrary illegal measures?? This is what will happen if you don’t kneel.

    Think the courts will help you?? Good luck trying to establish “standing” in today’s corrupt courts. Even if you do, justice is delayed by years and the requirement for millions of dollars.

    This doesn’t end with the ATF. Why do you think Federal agencies have been arming up since the Anointed One’s reign?? Who do you think is really running things?? Pudding for brains Biden??

    • Maybe these ideas come to him while he’s playing the daily try to grab the dog’s tail as soon as you step out of the shower game. That really was their best explanation for his broken foot.

    • Johnny LeBlanc,

      I agree completely that the raid was intentional and for the explicit purpose of intimidating the masses.

      Unfortunately, there is no fast and easy way to end such reprehensible raids. (See my “crossroads” comment below.)

      • nocommonsense…Grow a pair fool, bigots do not deserve Civil discourse anymore than the murderous atf garbage who taped a security camera to raid a home at the crack of dawn…Reminds me of johnny boy’s kkk democRat relatives that raided and burned the homes of defenseless Black Americans…Like I said…grow a pair.

    • “Who do you think is really running things?? Pudding for brains Biden??”

      Obama is almost certainly involved, but this beast has many heads.

    • ATF’s definition of “shock-and-awe”. Effectively state terrorism just as taught by the School of the Americas to many dictatorships in south and central America.

      Coming soon an American version of “Operation Condor” followed by disappearances. dacian, miner, and jsled are furiously self-pleasuring at the thought of being an active part of the program.

  5. “Potential charges

    Malinowski did not have a Federal Firearm License, yet he …”

    When I saw the heading “Potential charges”, I thought this article was going to talk about potential charges for the Ay Tee Eff agents involved, not the deceased.

    Here is the sad reality:
    Everyone knows what those government employees did is heinous and wrong–and probably illegal. (And if their actions are not illegal, they should be.) Everyone would also be wise to know that those government agents will continue doing such heinous and wrong (and likely even illegal) acts until each of them pays a huge personal penalty for their actions. Sadly, our federal government and likely even our state governments are not interested in applying and extracting those penalties. That leaves us at a crossroads: either “We the People” accept such heinous and wrong actions or “We the People” apply and extract those penalties ourselves. Think long and hard about what both of those paths entail–and choose wisely.

    • I think this is the way this is gonna play out — some Federal agency is going to go all goon squad on someone in such an egregious manner that it provokes retaliation from locals in the area. From then on it’ll be a chaotic bloodbath. The Feds will stomp on whoever stands in their way, but with cellphone video and internet access, citizens on the ground will transmit the Fed’s actions world wide. The political fallout will be worse than the initial incident and have international repercussions in today’s hyper-connected world. Just imagine if one of the Branch Davidians or Randy Weaver had been transmitting video to the world during those standoffs.

  6. the media has been promoting stories the last couple days of Biden “closing the gun show loop hole” and DOJ/ATF clamping down further on “unlicensed dealers” who don’t have to run a background check (and have no way to do so), ATF director says its are “doggone dangerous.”

    I guess this is the “engaged in the business” final rule.

    I haven’t seen as much from the gun rights side on these stories, but it seems it will be increasingly risky to sell firearms unless you are an FFL, of course by design they are also clamping down on FFLs and for a long time have been against the “kitchen table” FFL.

  7. summary execution of someone who would have turned themselves in at a phone call to their lawyer.

    • Well this kills so-called gun shows. It will just be FFL dealers with a shop peddling overpriced crap&gats they’re stuck with. Haven’t been to a so-called gun show since I got bad ammo some 12 years ago. Don’t miss it!

      • The feds are doing this because they want at least some form of a registry. “Gun violence” is their excuse. Notice how the feds were the ones committing the gun violence in the name of fighting gun violence.

  8. Until the regime change and true accountability occurs, I would anticipate wise people going offline with gun-related activities.

    As clearly stated, he may or may not have been in violation of the law. Anyone with sense should anticipate him surrendering to the appropriate authorities with a phone call. This action was unnecessary and lethal.

  9. If you feel the need to grab a gun make sure you grab a rifle. Keep armor by your rifle and practice putting it on fast. Last of all, if you feel the need to pull the trigger don’t fire warning shots and once you start firing don’t stop until they are dead or you are dead. There is no good 2nd place in a gun fight.

  10. State sanctioned murder of an ideological enemy. Clear purpose is to show what will happed to those who disobey the, at that time, soon to be released “Engaged in the business” final rule. Comply or die, simple straight forward message that cannot be misinterpreted.

  11. Neither Ruby Ridge nor Waco taught them the proper use of force.
    Oh I think they know all about the proper use of force.
    What they dont plan on is guys named Tim.

  12. This raid was set up in conjunction with the BATFE’s new rules on ‘unlicensed dealers in firearms’ rule changes: Probably in kahoots with Bidens Office of Gun Control. They were pushing this and other anti-RTKBA legislation in Congress and wanted a high profile bust in the MSM to help justify their violations of the Constitution. Well, they got one with a highly suspect UOF for a technical, non-violent, offense [if any at all] of being an “unlicensed dealer in firearms.”
    Not the first time for the BATFE. Every time they need more money, or more power, or their operations are under scrutiny they pull a high profile raid out of their hats as a defense mechanism. Kenyon Ballew, Ruby Ridge, Waco and now this…, and all of these resulted in the deaths of Americans at the hands of the BATFE. The pattern of BATFE abuse has been documented and Congress needs to do something about it. Remember, before 1968 these guys were just tax collectors on machinegun registrations.

  13. “Who Will the ATF Shoot Next?” If past behavior and the degree of accountability they suffered offer any guidance, they will shoot any fúckíng body they want to.

  14. WWJBD?

    What Would John Bowman Do?

    Find and read John Ross’ “Unintended Consequences.”

    • Cool story but various technology advances make much of the logistical portions of it irrelevant regarding anonymous communication that is widely available let alone the licence plate readers tracking traffic in real time even before touching the cell phone and computer issues. If it things get bad they would be far darker and brutal than that book ever portrayed.

  15. This was not a raid. This was a message. And that message from BATFEces is directed at EVERY gun owner in America. That message is blunt and blatant. They are saying ‘We can murder you anytime, anywhere, for any or no reason that we choose and do so with TOTAL legal impunity.’

  16. Here comes the coverup. Just which lucky FEEB will be chosen by Oklahoma City bombing suspect “John Doe #2” (no doubt now in BATFE/DOJ leadership) to engineer a “False Flag” event to distract from the ATF murdering a man in his own home?

    And just why aren’t the FEEBs wearing bodycameras? If there is one common thing as of late with the videos online of the FEEBS harassing and/or raiding citizen’s (Christian’s/MAGA’s) homes none of the jackboots are wearing bodycameras nor are they willing to show their ID/badges long enough for those targeted to record photograph, or otherwise copy the information.

  17. Who Will the ATF Shoot Next?
    Whomever they want to. That’s the scary truth of tyranny.

  18. Oh, and there just was a knife attack in the oh so gun free and safe Australia. 5+ dead, multiple wounded with stabbing wounds.
    Consider this your daily reminder to stay strapped or get clapped.

  19. Make no mistake: They will murder YOU, your FAMILY, and your PETS; then go back to their offices and masterbate over it…

    Fucking bloodthirsty psychpaths

  20. Sounds like Waco all over. i plan on writing a strong letter to my reprsentatives and to the representatives of neighboring states as these murders and violation of civil rights are unacceptable.

Comments are closed.