Bryan Malinowski, executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, died on Thursday after he was shot in his home Tuesday morning as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was serving a federal search warrant.
The ATF believed he was selling guns without a license, and without asking buyers for the proper information.
They arrived at Mr. Malinowski’s home in Little Rock around 6 a.m.
Federal officials said Mr. Malinowski shot first from inside the home, at which point agents returned fire, hitting him multiple times.
Mr. Malinowski, 53, was treated at the scene by paramedics before being transported to a local hospital, where he was placed on life support and later died.
An ATF agent sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound and was transported to a local hospital, state police said.
“The ATF should have never raided him like they did,” his older brother Matt Malinowski told KARK. “You don’t send a whole group of people with high-armed weapons like they did at 6:00 in the morning, Arrest him at work! He goes to work every day. He’s a very public figure.”
The Malinowski family released a statement through an attorney Thursday, asking the media and the public to respect their privacy.
“Our family has endured an unspeakable tragedy and one that is almost impossible to understand,” the statement from Attorney Bud Cummins said. “Our thoughts and prayers also go out to the government agent who was injured yesterday, and to his family. We do not understand the government’s decisions which led to a dawn raid on a private home and triggered the use of deadly force. We are obviously concerned about the allegations in the affidavit released by the government today.”
Even if the allegations in the affidavit are true, they don’t begin to justify what happened, the statement added.
“At worst, Bryan Malinowski, a gun owner and gun enthusiast, stood accused of making private firearm sales to a person who may not have been legally entitled to purchase the guns. For now, we will wait for all the facts to come out.”
Late on Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed redacted documents related to the raid.
The ATF obtained the search warrant to look for evidence that Mr. Malinowski may have been selling firearms without a license. They wanted to look at his cell phone to see if he had photos of guns, because those who “engage in the business of dealing firearms without a license, often take pictures and videos of their illegal activity and maintain those pictures and videos on their phones,” ATF papers say.
They were after electronic devices, any storage safes, guns, ammunition, bank records, and they wanted to search his vehicle.
The case started in November when a confidential informant showed police there a photograph of a gun that had some serial numbers visible. Soon Canadian officials shared that information with the ATF industry operations investigator specialist, who sent the case to the ATF Little Rock Field Office.
It is not clear why the photo caught the attention of law enforcement.
Using the partial serial number, the ATF traced the purchaser, identifying Bryan Malinowski. That trace showed he had purchased many guns.
According to the Affidavit of Probable Cause, Mr. Malinowski purchased the following firearms from a Little Rock Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL). The name of that FFL was redacted from the report.
Approximately 24 Glock, Model 45, pistols; 9 Fed Arm, Model FR-16, pistols; 9 Beretta Model 92A, pistols; 7 North American Arms, Model NA22, pistols; 4 Glock Model 22, pistols; 4 SAR Model SAR9, pistols; 3 ATI, Model OMNI, pistols; 3 Glock, Model 19, pistols; 3 Glock, Model I7, pistols; 3 Beretta, Model 92FS; and multiple other handguns where he purchased two of the same manufacturer and model.
The ATF opened an investigation and found that between sometime in 2019 and Dec. 2023, Mr. Malinowski bought 142 firearms from the unnamed FFL.
An employee there told the ATF that he usually bought his guns from gunbroker.com and had them shipped to the FFL. They charged him a $25 transfer fee.
Through traces, the ATF found three guns purchased by Mr. Malinowski were recovered during the commission of a crime.
The ATF says a gun Mr. Malinowski bought was confiscated 281 days later, when a police officer made a traffic stop and found the driver with this gun, and another one apparently unrelated to this case, suspected marijuana, and a 4-year-old child in the car.
In a similar traffic stop, police recovered marijuana and a gun allegedly purchased by Mr. Malinowski 193 days prior.
In a third traffic stop, again with marijuana in the car, a person who had been previously convicted of robbery and was prohibited from buying or possessing a gun, had a gun purchased by Mr. Malinowski just 15 days before that traffic stop, the affidavit reads. An interview with the person in the car revealed the gun was purchased at a gun show. He identified Mr. Malinowski in photos.
The ATF had been given photos of Mr. Malinowski at a June 2023 gun show in Conway, Arkansas, where he appeared to operate as a vendor and sold firearms to several subjects without asking for identification or paperwork. They did not know his identity when they received the photos but someone at the ATF recognized him in the course of this case.
After the gun show, the person from the third traffic stop continued to buy guns from Mr. Malinowski without showing paperwork, the ATF said.
In January, the ATF heard from police in California that a gun traced to Mr. Malinowski was found in a park frequented by the “Norteno criminal street gang” where a shooting and robbery happened the night before, the affidavit said.
Later in January, undercover ATF agents went to Mr. Malinowski’s table at another gun show. He told them he is a private seller, so no paperwork is needed, the affidavit said. He sold several guns totaling $1,300.
The affidavit goes on to describe additional, similar activity.
The ATF watched him for months and put a tracking device on his car in February, court papers show.
