The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has told Republican Arkansas Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman that federal agents were not wearing body cameras when they fatally shot Arkansas airport director Bryan Malinowski in a pre-dawn raid on his home on March 19.
The Little Rock field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had suspected Mr. Malinowski—executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport—of selling firearms without a license and without conducting background checks. The ATF had obtained a warrant to search his home and arrived at the man’s home at around 6 a.m. on March 19, wearing full tactical gear.
The exact sequence of events after the federal agents entered Mr. Malinowski’s home remains unclear, but there was an exchange of gunfire and he was struck at least once in the head. He died of his wounds two days later.
Mr. Malinowski’s family has been seeking answers following the fatal shooting and had hoped the release of footage from body cameras would bring some clarity. According to the two Republican Arkansas senators, that body-camera footage doesn’t exist.
“The Department of Justice confirmed to us last night that the ATF agents involved in the execution of a search warrant of the home of Bryan Malinowski weren’t wearing body cameras,” the senators said in a joint press statement on Friday.
This reported lack of body camera footage comes even as multiple policies direct federal law enforcement agencies to implement and standardize the use of such recording devices. A June 2021 DOJ memorandum orders federal law enforcement agencies, including the ATF, to submit policy proposals for requiring agents to wear and activate such body cameras to record their actions during pre-planned arrest operations and when executing searches and seizures. A May 25, 2022, executive order, brought by President Joe Biden, called on federal law enforcement agencies to identify the resources needed to begin implementing such body-camera policies at the agency level.
“We will continue to press the Department to explain how this violation of its own policy could’ve happened and to disclose the full circumstances of this tragedy. Mr. Malinowski’s family and the public have a right to a full accounting of the facts,” Mr. Cotton and Mr. Boozman said Friday.
‘More Questions Than Answers’: Attorney
The Biden administration’s efforts to standardize the use of body cameras came about after Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, was fatally shot on March 13, 2020, as Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers were executing a search warrant at the home of Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. The circumstances of the shootout led to questions about whether LMPD officers had turned on their body cameras before the fatal encounter.
Ms. Taylor’s family was invited to the May 2022 ceremony in which President Biden signed his executive order promoting the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers.
“The Malinowski family was aware that two years ago in response to the highly publicized death of Ms. Breonna Taylor ATF adopted a mandatory policy requiring the use of body worn cameras whenever ATF execute a search warrant,” Bud Cummins, an attorney representing the Malinowski family, said in an emailed statement to NTD News.
Mr. Cummins said the Malinowski family had been anxiously awaiting the expedited release of any recordings captured from the March 19 raid.
“The shocking admission by ATF, that no body worn cameras were utilized during this search which resulted in the senseless and unjustifiable death of Bryan Malinowski raises more questions than it answers,” the family attorney said.
The revelation of this lack of body camera footage from the March 19 raid on Mr. Malinowski’s home comes just days after the Malinowski family released footage captured on the morning of the raid, showing federal agents covered over Mr. Malinowski’s doorbell camera mere moments before they entered his home and shot him.
To date, Mr. Cummins said there remains no publicly available record showing whether federal agents knocked on the door or announced themselves prior to entering Mr. Malinowski’s home. Mr. Cummins contends that law enforcement agents should identify themselves prior to entering someone’s home. He said if ATF agents had intended to identify themselves and gain Mr. Malinowski’s compliance, it would seem counterproductive that they covered over his security camera’s lens.
The Malinowski family contends Bryan Malinowski and his wife Maer believed intruders were breaking into their home on the morning of March 19.
“He loaded a magazine into a pistol and emerged from the master bedroom into a hallway leading indirectly to the front entryway,” Mr. Cummins previously told The Epoch Times. “He reached a corner in the hall and looked around it to see several unidentifiable figures already several steps inside his home. 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.”
NTD News reached out to the ATF and the DOJ for comment about the apparent lack of body cameras during the March 19 incident.
“As is standard practice, this matter is under review by state authorities in Arkansas,” an ATF spokesperson said Monday. “The Department of Justice does not comment on pending matters.”