When you look at federal law enforcement, it's easy to find the notable work conducted by the FBI and DEA. They've got a long history of top-notch agents, even if the last few years have looked a little rocky. The ATF doesn't really seem to have that.
They do some sketchy stuff, and people die. Now, the widow of one of those is suing the agency.
Bryan Malinowski was an airport executive who sold guns on the side, apparently. The ATF had a problem with his side hustle, though. Whether he sold too many to not be considered a gun dealer or not is kind of irrelevant. The issue isn't their suspicion of Malinowski, but his death.
His widow argues the ATF acted recklessly during a pre-dawn raid.
The widow of a Little Rock man who was shot after he opened fire on federal agents during a pre-dawn raid last March is suing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Maer Malinowski, the widow of Little Rock airport executive and hobbyist gun salesman Bryan Malinowski, is bringing a wrongful death suit in which she contends federal agents serving a search warrant at her West Little Rock home on the morning of March 19, 2024, were reckless and needlessly aggressive. Along with the ATF itself and the U.S. government, the lawsuit names 10 federal agents and task force officers as individual defendants.
In a complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock, plaintiff Maer Malinowski takes issue with agents’ failure to knock, announce their presence and then wait before entering. Breaking the door down before daylight resulted in “an entirely predictable, needless and tragic outcome,” the complaint states.
Bryan Malinowski, who was 53 at the time of his death, was not aware he was the subject of a federal investigation into illegal firearms sales, the complaint says, and thought the people breaking into his home shortly after 6 a.m. that day were intruders.
And honestly, if I have no reason to believe I'm being investigated for a crime and someone busts in my door at six in the morning, I'm likely to grab my firearm and start shooting as well.
Worth noting is that they could have made the arrest at work or on his way to or from the airport where he worked. The ATF could have also, at the same time, raided the house during daylight hours with a knock on the door and a warrant to search the premises.
They did not.
This brought Waco to mind for many of us, which wasn't all that dissimilar. The ATF could have arrested David Koresh while he was out in town, but opted for a flashier, more spectacular raid. The result was a lot of innocent people, including children, killed after a tense standoff.
This should be a slam dunk for Malinowski's widow, but suing the government is never easy. The best hope is that the ATF, under the new leadership, simply acknowledges that the previous administration screwed the pooch and settles out of court, and does so quickly. I don't see that as being as far-fetched as it might have been just a year ago.
Which might be why the lawsuit was filed here and now.
Either way, this is a case to watch. It'll tell us a lot about the direction of the ATF over the next few years.