The widow of the Little Rock airport director killed in a law enforcement raid last year filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Thursday.
Attorneys for Maria “Maer” Malinowski, including former U.S. attorney and Little Rock lawyer Bud Cummins, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on her behalf and as the personal representative of her late husband, Bryan Malinowski.
The complaint, which names ATF and 10 agents and task force officers as defendants, alleges agents chose “the most aggressive tactics available” to serve a search warrant before dawn on March 19, 2024, “even though no facts or circumstances justified the use of such tactics,” according to a press release.
“Throughout my government service, I worked with many highly motivated and talented agents from various agencies who conducted thorough investigations while respecting the rights of every citizen,” Cummins said in a statement. “The facts speak for themselves: the plan was unnecessary, and the execution was illegal. If the government cannot be held accountable in this case, none of us can feel safe in our homes.”
In addition to being the executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Bryan Malinowski was also a firearms hobbyist. According to the complaint, the ATF issued a federal search warrant based on the suspicion that he was acting as a firearms dealer without securing a $200 firearms license.
ATF regulations at that time provided safe harbor for collectors who sold firearms without it being their primary livelihood. Because Bryan Malinowski did not rely on selling firearms at gun shows as his primary source of income, “he considered himself safely within the law’s allowance,” according to the lawsuit.
After knocking on the Malinowskis’ door around 6 a.m. on March 19, 2024, federal agents broke down the door with a battering ram. “An exchange of gunfire” resulted in Bryan Malinowski being shot in the head, according to the complaint. He died two days later at the age of 53.
Following Malinowski’s death, federal and state lawmakers sought more answers about the incident.
The lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages for Maer Malinowski’s “mental anguish, emotional pain, torment and suffering caused by her personal experience of the wrongful conduct and detention by Defendants.”
“Today’s lawsuit seeks justice for the nightmare I’ve been living for the last 14 months,” Maer Malinowski said in a statement. “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. While nothing can bring back my husband of 25 years, today’s filing seeks to hold the federal government accountable for what they violently and wrongfully took from me on March 19, 2024.”
Her lawsuit alleges 13 violations by the ATF and its agents, including four federal constitutional claims Failure to Knock and Announce, Unlawful Entry, Use of Deadly Force and Illegal Detention. The other allegations are based on Arkansas state tort claims, including Wrongful Death, Assault and Battery, Negligence and False Imprisonment of herself, and for Manslaughter and Negligent Homicide, Battery, Aggravated Assault and Criminal Mischief.
The false imprisonment allegation stems from the hours she spent handcuffed and wearing only a nightgown in the back of a police car while ATF agents searched her home, according to the lawsuit.
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