In the predawn hours of March 19, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attempted to search the home of Bryan Malinowski, the executive director of the Little Rock airport, who had allegedly sold guns illegally without a firearms dealer license. As ATF agents moved through Malinowski’s upscale home at 4 Durance Court in West Little Rock, he opened fire on them, shooting one agent in the foot. The agent shot back, fatally wounding Malinowski.
The agents were not wearing body cameras as required by ATF policy, apparently because the bureau field office responsible for Little Rock had not yet bought the equipment. (ATF officials have said the policy is being implemented in phases.) But they weren’t the only law enforcement on the scene that morning. At least one officer with the Little Rock Police Department accompanied the convoy of ATF vehicles in an LRPD vehicle.
Until recently, the LRPD dashcam footage was not publicly available because the case remained under review by Will Jones, the prosecuting attorney for Pulaski County. On Friday, Jones announced the criminal investigation complete after his office had determined the ATF agent’s use of deadly force was justified. That cleared the way for the Arkansas Times to obtain the video under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Be warned: Though not much can be seen on screen, the audio is disturbing. Bryan Malinowski’s wife, Maer Malinowski, is brought to the LRPD vehicle immediately after the shooting of her husband, and much of the video’s hour-and-16-minute runtime is filled with her cries of grief and confusion.
Given the public interest in the case, we are publishing the footage in its entirety here. A clip of the first few minutes can be seen below.
Though the Malinowski case is unusual in some ways, in others it is not: More than 1,100 people have been shot and killed by law enforcement in the U.S. in the last 12 months, according to a database of fatal police shootings compiled by the Washington Post. That figure is on par for an average year. The dashcam footage from the Malinowski case offers a glimpse into the aftermath of a deadly law enforcement raid.
The video, which begins around 6:02 a.m. on March 19, conveys little information about how the raid itself played out. As has been described in a timeline sketched by Jones’ office, the LRPD vehicle briefly turns on its siren just before 6:03, apparently to announce the presence of law enforcement. The front door of the house, which is set back from the street, is not visible on the video.
Jones’ timeline says that agents knocked on the door for about 28 seconds before breaking it down with a battering ram at 6:03:27. At 6:03:43, the microphone picks up the sound of gunfire — four shots from one gun, three from a second gun. “There’s somebody down,” a voice says on the police radio just after 6:04 a.m.
Maer Malinowski’s voice can first be heard around 6:05:45 as law enforcement agents bring her to the LRPD vehicle. “What’s going on? What’s going on?” she cries.
An officer tells her that they are there for a search warrant. Though she can’t be seen on camera — except briefly at the very end of the video — the audio indicates she was dressed for sleep and not prepared for the frigid temperatures outside that morning. (A footnote on Jones’ letter regarding the investigation notes that Maer Malinowski later told Arkansas State Police investigators that she and her husband were awake in their bedroom when they heard knocking on the door.)
Seemingly disoriented and in shock, Maer Malinowski asks about her dogs. “I need my pugs, I need my pugs … and I’m cold,” she says between sobs. An officer tries to coax her to sit inside the police car. “It’s warm in there,” he says. She also asks repeatedly if she can contact her neighbors.
“Oh my god … my husband’s dead, my husband’s dead,” she wails. “Why did you shoot my husband?”
When Maer Malinowski again asks what’s happening, an LRPD officer tells her, “The ATF is serving a search warrant.” She seems baffled. “For what? … We don’t do drugs,” she says.
The rationale for the warrant was laid out in an affidavit that would be unsealed by a federal court shortly after Bryan Malinowski’s death. The ATF said he purchased more than 150 guns over the past three years. Although he attested in writing with each purchase that the weapons were for his personal use, he sold at least some of them at gun shows and other settings without asking for IDs or other paperwork. At least six ended up at the scenes of minor crimes. Police in Canada used serial numbers to trace weapons found illegally in that country to Bryan Malinowski, the affidavit says.
In the dashcam footage, though, Maer Malinowski appears to have no idea what brought the ATF to their doorstep. “You’ve got the wrong house,” she says at one point. “We didn’t do anything wrong, we are honest people.”
At no point does the subject of guns or gun sales come up in the recording.
Around 6:10 a.m., the LRPD officer calls a police dispatcher. “There’s going to be one ATF agent en route to UAMS with one gunshot wound to the foot,” he says. Meanwhile, a siren approaches in the background. “Hear that? We have an ambulance en route, OK?” the LRPD officer tells Maer Malinowski.
“They’re going to take your husband to the hospital,” he adds later on. But she knows it’s too late: “He’s dead, he’s dead. I saw, he’s dead,” she says. (Bryan Malinowski remained on life support for two days; he died on March 21.)
Around 6:25 a.m., Little Rock firefighters attend to Maer Malinowski. “She’s got a little blood on her, a couple little nicks … I’m not sure what they’re from, exactly,” one says. She tells him that she was “right next” to Bryan Malinowski when the bullet struck, and that there was “debris” — apparently shrapnel.
“When they shot my husband, I opened the door from the bedroom because he closed it,” she tells the firefighters. “We thought there was an intruder, so I opened the door and closed it, and then I opened it again. That’s when they — when he got shot.”
A little after 6:30 a.m., another person — who sounds to be a female law enforcement officer — comes to the car. Maer Malinowski begs permission to go inside her house to retrieve her phone and get some coffee. She asks again about her pugs. “Where are my little babies?” she says.
“I’m going to check on your babies. Of course I will,” the female officer says. Around 6:36, another officer finally brings her a blanket and tells her the dogs are safe inside her bedroom.
The video continues for another 40 minutes, with Maer Malinowski crying to herself in the LRPD car. Dawn begins to break outside.
Around 7:11, an officer comes to give her an update. “We’re going to try to get you to a fire station so you can get cleaned up and go to the bathroom, OK?” he says.
Scared and shaken, she just wants to go back inside her home. “I’m not going to touch anything. I just want to get my clothes and check on my pugs and make some coffee — please!” she begs.
He gently tells her that won’t be possible: The house is a crime scene and no one is allowed inside, he says. “State police is going to show up, they’re going to process the crime scene, and it might take a little bit. When they get here, we’ll know more.” Around 7:17 a.m., more than 75 minutes after the shooting, a woman who appears to be a law enforcement officer comes to the car and leads Maer Malinowski away.
Debra Hale-Shelton contributed reporting for this story.