Sen. Cotton: During the Malinowski raid, ATF officers were not wearing body cameras

Little Rock, Arkansas – According to reports, on March 19 in Little Rock, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided Bryan Malinowski’s residence without donning body cams.

In a joint statement on April 19, Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman stated that the Department of Justice had notified them that the ATF officers “involved in the execution of a search warrant” at Malinowski’s residence lacked body cameras.

“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,” the senators said. “Mr. Malinowski’s family and the public have a right to a full accounting of the facts.”

The lawyer for the Malinowski family, Bud Cummings, responded to the senators by stating that the ATF wears body cameras when executing search warrants, a policy that begs more questions than it answers.

“An ATF policy dated June 2, 2022, specifically requires ATF to use body-worn cameras any time they execute a search warrant,” Cummings said. “The creation of this policy was supposedly in direct response to the shooting of Ms. Breonna Taylor. It is astounding for ATF to now claim they simply ignored this clear policy. It raises more questions than it answers.”

After an ATF raid at around six in the morning, Malinowski, a sixteen-year employee of the Clinton National Airport, was slain by agents. Agents purportedly fired at agents when they were executing a federal search warrant that they had brought to the residence.

Malinowski would be hit by retaliatory fire from agents, and two days later he would pass away. Malinowski shot an unnamed agent during the shootout, although the wound was not considered life-threatening.

The search warrant was related to Malinowski’s acquisition of at least 150 firearms during three years. Three more weapons were bought by undercover ATF agents, and six of those weapons would later be found at various crime scenes around the country.

After a confidential informant sent a photo of guns to Canadian officials, the ATF Little Rock Field Office received a tip and placed him under active monitoring in December 2023. Some of the guns in the pictures had serial numbers that linked them to Malinowski.

According to an affidavit, he would lawfully buy the guns and declare on a form that they would be used for personal defense.

It is then stated that Malinowski would resell those firearms at gun exhibitions. He has been charged with not having the required paperwork completed when selling a handgun and selling firearms without the required license.

According to the affidavit, Malinowski did not possess a dealer’s license when he resold firearms as a vendor at the Conway gun show in 2023. It is said that he made multiple deals without requesting “any identification or paperwork.”

We have requested a statement from the ATF. When we have it, we will update the article.