16-05-2025
Attorney for widow of former Little Rock airport executive Bryan Malinowski discusses lawsuit against ATF over deadly 2024 raid & shooting
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – More than a year after his death, the family of former Little Rock Airport Director Bryan Malinowski is suing the ATF and agents who participated in the search warrant that resulted in his death.
The lawsuit claims that the agents violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, as well as many other federal policies and state laws, before and after the search warrant.
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Attorney Bud Cummins represents Bryan Malinowski's widow, Maer Malinowski, in the complaint. It states that on March 19, 2024, ATF agents with Little Rock Police turned on a siren for 1.5 seconds before turning off the siren and keeping on lights.
Agents allegedly knocked on Malinowski's storm door and shouted for less than half a minute before deciding to break in those doors and the wooden door behind them. All of it happened shortly after 6 a.m. and an hour before sunrise.
'Never rang the doorbell. Knocked and waited 20 to 25 seconds before they started forcibly breaking open the door and never made an announcement again that they were police, who they were, and what their purpose was, and that's really where the constitutional violations occur,' Cummins said.
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Cummins argued a reasonable search warrant execution would have given someone with no criminal record more time to get to the door. He said that when Malinowski awoke, he did not see police lights or hear anything but what he believed were intruders.
When agents entered the home, Malinowski was a few feet from his bedroom and 30 feet down a hall to the agents' left. Malinowski shot one in the heel, the lawsuit states. Another agent returned fire, shooting Malinowski in the head.
'From the side where Bryan Malinowski saw intruders coming into his home, there were no markings that identified them as police, and they were not making any announcements that they were police,' Cummins said.
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According to the suit, there was disorganization during the execution of the search warrant. The agent carrying a ballistic shield with 'POLICE' on it never entered the home when he was supposed to enter first.
The agent who entered first instead told investigators, 'I think we were unprepared for the French doors.' Several other agents are quoted in the 72-page lawsuit.
'But for their planning and their execution, Bryan Malinowski would have been alive today. His death is completely attributable to the mistakes that are described in that complaint,' Cummins argued.
The lawsuit also claims Malinowski's widow was wrongfully detained for hours with no legitimate reason. Neither she nor her husband had an arrest warrant for them, only a search warrant alleging Bryan Malinowski was selling firearms without a $200 license, which requires more record keeping of who guns are sold to.
'When there is no fact or circumstances to lead law enforcement to think there is risk of danger, risk of destruction of evidence, risk of fleeing, there is absolutely no reason to use these tactics, and by golly, if you are going to use them, you've got to do it right,' Cummins said.
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Last Summer, District Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones decided not to file charges against ATF agents, saying their use of force was justified. On Thursday, Jones said he had not read the new lawsuit and would not have anything additional to say regarding it.
Cummins anticipates the trial will likely not be heard in 2025.
Maer Malinowski also shared a statement following the lawsuit's filing.
'Today's lawsuit seeks justice for the nightmare I've been living for the last 14 months,' Maer Malinowski said in part. 'Bryan believed the men who broke into our home were intruders, and he took a bullet to the forehead and ultimately gave his life defending me and our home from people he thought were trying to harm us.'
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