Bryan Malinowski, executive director of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, was fatally wounded in a shootout as ATF agents tried to serve a search warrant at his home.
An executive for the Little Rock, Arkansas, airport who was killed in a shootout with federal agents this week had been under investigation over gun sales, search warrant records unsealed Thursday show.
Bryan Malinowski, 53, who was executive director of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, was shot after he opened fire at federal agents who arrived to serve a warrant Tuesday morning, officials said.
Malinowski died Thursday, his family said. His brother has said he was shot in the head.
What benefit does a dawn raid provide over just showing up when he’s expected to be out of the house? It’s worse at protecting evidence, a harder tactical situation for the cops (entering a building where the target can ambush, easily access weaponry, and shoot from cover), and worse for the target making rational decisions (like not shooting at cops). Ignore the target, because you presumably think he got what he deserved. One of the agents got shot and they didn’t have to.
This wasn’t an imminent danger situation where if they didn’t get him at 6 am he was going to set off a dirty bomb at 7 and disappear into the wind. He was going to go to work and then come home later to do the same slow and steady crime he’d been doing for months.
I don’t disagree with any of this… he still shot at cops lol
We don’t really know how aware he was that they were cops. Breonna Taylor died because her boyfriend didn’t know they were cops.
Sure, this could just be a survivalist whacko taking his last stand once the gubmint finally came for him, but it also could be triggering someone’s fight or flight when they’ve surrounded themselves with tools for fighting and a fearful mindset. And again, a cop got shot. They should do stuff to avoid that.
This was a guy performing career criminal moves. Totally different than Breonna Taylor (which is totally fucked for its own reasons, to be clear). But these are not the same. This guy knew exactly who was at his door, and what he was doing.
None of which answers the question - why did this need to be a dawn raid, instead of going in while he was out at work?
People doing “career criminal moves” (fucking copaganda bullshit framing making an unusual appearance against a white suspect for once) don’t have some magic cop-sense and often are worried about being the subject of violent crime. Doubly so if this was some rich white dude mainlining Fox News 24/7.
You don’t know anything about what he knew or why he shot at them, but fuck it, go to the mat for the boys in blue like a good bootlicker.