By Steve Neavling
The widow of a Little Rock man killed during a pre-dawn ATF raid last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government, accusing agents of using excessive force and failing to follow proper procedures.
Maer Malinowski, the wife of Bryan Malinowski, a Little Rock airport executive and part-time gun seller, alleges federal agents stormed their home without properly knocking and announcing themselves, leading her husband to believe intruders were breaking in, the Arkansas Times reports. The March 2024 raid ended in a shootout that left Bryan Malinowski dead. He was 53.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, names the ATF, the U.S. government, and 10 federal agents and task force officers. The complaint says the ATF’s tactics caused a “predictable, needless and tragic outcome.”
According to the suit, Bryan Malinowski did not know he was the subject of a federal firearms investigation and opened fire thinking his home was under attack. Agents returned fire, killing him. His wife says she was detained for hours in a police car in her nightgown and was not allowed to check on her pets.
The raid drew national attention and political scrutiny, with Republicans in Congress, including Rep. Jim Jordan, seizing on the case to criticize federal law enforcement. Maer Malinowski’s legal team includes former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins, who testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee about the raid during a hearing on the “weaponization of the federal government.”
Federal authorities said they were investigating Malinowski for buying about 150 firearms over several years and illegally reselling them without a license. Some of those weapons were later recovered at crime scenes in the U.S. and Canada, though court documents show at least three of those cases involved marijuana possession.
