Federal Agents Blocked Home Security Camera Before Fatally Shooting Airport Executive

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:29 pm

Bryan Malinowski, the executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas was fatally shot by federal agents in a pre-dawn raid on his home on March 19.

New video now shows federal agents covered up a doorbell security camera at Malinowski’s home moments before the fatal encounter.

Agents with the Little Rock Field Office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, (known commonly as the ATF) had applied for a search warrant of Malinowski’s home, alleging he had unlawfully acquired numerous firearms and begun to deal them without a license.

Upon conducting their armed search of his home, ATF agents found Malinowski and fired on him. He was struck by gunfire and subsequently hospitalized and died two days later.

In a March 21 court filing, U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Ross asserted Malinowski had been armed and fired upon the federal agents arriving at his home, who returned fire.

Members of Malinowski’s family have questioned the early morning raid.

“The ATF should have never raided him like they did. You don’t send a whole group of people with high armed weapons like they did at 6:00 in the morning,” older brother Matt Malinowski told KARK in March. “Arrest him at work. He goes to work every day. He’s a very public figure.”

The family of the deceased airport executive has continued to press for answers about what really happened in that raid.

The footage was released this week, showing the view from Malinowski’s front door as armed federal agents converged on his home at around 6 a.m. on the morning of March 19.

In the footage, captured on a Ring doorbell device, showed the lead agent in the formation approaching the door carrying a ballistic shield. As a porch light turned on, the lead agent turned to the agent behind him in the formation, who appeared to hand him a piece of tape the lead agent then used to cover over the doorbell camera.

It remains unclear what transpired in the moments after that federal agent snuffed out the doorbell camera.

It’s also unclear whether Malinowski understood who the armed men who arrived at his home were before they shot him. Bud Cummins, an attorney representing the Malinowski family, said there is not yet publicly available evidence demonstrating whether the federal agents knocked on his door or announced themselves prior to the fatal shooting.

“Bryan’s wife Maer only heard loud banging immediately followed by the crash of the front door being forced open,” Cummins told KATV in a press statement this week.

Cummins said Maer Malinowski believed there was a criminal intruder in their home, as did her deceased husband.

“He reached a corner in the hall and looked around it to see several unidentifiable figures already several steps inside his home,” Cummins told the Epoch Times. “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.”

Cummins said it appears counterproductive for federal agents to have covered the doorbell camera if their intent was to clearly identify themselves and convince the subject of a search warrant to open up, rather than meet them with deadly force, as happened on March 19.

The deceased airport executive was struck in the head by gunfire during the encounter.

It’s unclear if the federal agents were equipped with body-worn cameras when they conducted this March 19 raid, and the ATF has not said whether it will release any body camera footage it may have from the raid.

President Joe Biden unveiled an executive order in May of 2022, promoting body cameras and requiring federal law enforcement agencies to standardize their use during arrests and searches.

In their application for a search warrant, federal agents said Canadian law enforcement officials had received a photograph of several firearms, sent to them by a confidential informant. The U.S. federal agents did not know the whereabouts of these photographed firearms but were able to identify serial numbers on those firearms that matched the ones purchased by Malinoswki.

ATF agents said 92 firearms purchases were linked to Malinowski from November 2021 to December 2023. The agents identified multiple purchases of the same models of handguns, such as 24 Glock 45s, nine Fed Arm FR-16 pistols, and nine Berretta 92As.

The ATF said they also observed Malinowski selling firearms at the G&S Promotions gun show in Conway, Arkansas last June, without asking recipients for any identification or paperwork for the guns. In some cases, firearms linked to purchases by Malinowski were recovered in the possessions of individuals federally prohibited from having them.

Cummins said Arkansas law allows individuals to transfer firearms without a federal firearms license and without conducting background checks of transfer recipients. He insisted these transfers are allowable up to a certain threshold; a legal limit for which there is “no bright line test.”

“Mr. Malinowski’s family and close friends don’t think he had any inkling the ATF was concerned about his gun show sales,” Cummins told the Epoch Times. “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.”