An Arkansas prosecutor said Friday that a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent was justified when he fatally shot the man. Little Rock airport director during a raid on his home in March.
Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones said in a letter to ATF that no charges would be filed in the shooting after reviewing the Arkansas State Police investigation into the shooting at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport Executive Director Bryan Malinowski.
Malinowski, 53, died days after he was shot when ATF agents executed an arrest warrant at his Little Rock home on March 19. Someone in the house fired gunshots at the officers, but they returned fire, hitting the shooter. The shooter was later identified as Malinowski.
An affidavit released after the shooting said Malinowski purchased more than 150 guns between May 2021 and February 2024 and resold many without a dealer’s license.
In his letter, Jones said the officers identified themselves outside with flashing police lights and sirens before entering and announced their presence at the front door. He wrote that the ATF agents had shields and wore shirts with ATF Police printed on the right side and body armor with ATF Police printed on the front. Jones wrote that during the raid, one of the officers saw another officer fall to the ground, heard a shot and saw Malinowski holding a gun.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, Officer 2 reasonably believed that deadly force was necessary to defend himself and Officer 1,” Jones wrote. “Therefore, Officer 2’s use of deadly force was consistent with Arkansas law and justified.”
ATF spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua called the state’s investigation into the shooting “prompt, professional and independent” and said it is now under internal review by the agency.
The Malinowski family has called the ATF’s tactics in the raid “completely unnecessary” and has complained about a lack of details from the ATF. An attorney for Malinowski’s family has said he was a gun collector and was unaware he was under investigation for reselling firearms at gun shows.
Bud Cummins, the family’s attorney, said Friday that questions about the raid were “far from over” despite Jones’ decision. Cummins noted that, according to Jones’ letter, ATF agents waited only 28 seconds after knocking on the Malinowski’s door before they started ramming.
“How long is it reasonable to wait for someone to open the front door at 6 a.m. in response to inexplicably loud banging in a fully insulated 3,000-square-foot home? Let’s pray the answer isn’t 28 seconds. The Fourth Amendment means more than that to each of us,” Cummins said in a statement.
His death sparked criticism from some Republican lawmakers in Arkansas, who had asked for more information from the ATF, and the chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee in April asked the ATF to provide the panel documents and information about the raid.
