Tag: police shootings

Watchdog sues for ATF records about shooting death of Arkansas Airport Official

The watchdog group Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) records regarding the fatal shooting of Little Rock, Arkansas, resident and Executive Director of the Clinton National Airport: Bryan Malinowski.  

Malinowski was shot and wounded by ATF agents in shootout an ATF raid on his home in March. He died of his injuries. When originally asked for pertinent records, ATF produced only heavily redacted search warrant court filings. 

The lawsuit was filed June 10, 2024, after the ATF failed to respond adequately to an April 16 FOIA request for: 

  1. All emails and text messages sent to and from ATF officials regarding Little Rock resident Bryan Malinowski who died in an ATF raid on March 19, 2024.
  2. All records related to the raid on the home of Bryan Malinowski, including but not limited to, re-operational briefing documents, raid plans, investigative reports, memoranda, warrants and audio and video recordings.

On April 22, 2024, Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach, asking for details about “the deadly pre-dawn raid conducted by ATF in Little Rock, Arkansas, while executing a search warrant on the home of Bryan Malinowski, a local airport executive.”

An affidavit, which was unsealed after Malinowski’s death and produced to Judicial Watch, alleged he unlawfully sold guns without a license.

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No Charges in ATF Killing Over Paperwork Firearms Violation

Agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) suspected that Bryan Malinowski, executive director of the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, and an avid firearms collector, was reselling enough firearms at gun shows to make him more of a commercial dealer than a hobbyist. That meant he should, in the ATF’s view, get a Federal Firearms License. So on March 19, agents did what law enforcers do when they suspect people of paperwork violations: They raided his home before dawn, taped over the doorbell camera, and shot Malinowski dead less than a minute later when he opened fire on intruders who had just busted in his front door.

Unsurprisingly, the ATF agents are on their way to evading consequences for causing a man’s death over a paperwork violation.

Self-Defense, But for Who?

“A law enforcement officer is justified in using deadly physical force if the officer reasonably believes that the use of force is necessary to defend himself or a third person from the use of deadly force,” Sixth Judicial District Prosecutor Will Jones writes in his letter to ATF Special Agent Joshua Jackson absolving the agent who killed Malinowski of legal liability. “Given the totality of the circumstances, Agent 2 had a reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to defend himself and Agent 1. Therefore, the use of deadly force by Agent 2 was in accordance with Arkansas law and was justified.”

Of course, Malinowski himself might have felt justified in using deadly force given that the front door to his family’s home had been battered down just seconds after strangers began banging on the door.

“Had he survived he was almost certainly entitled to claim self-defense in the wounding of the agent based on the reckless manner in which the government planned and executed the search,” Bud Cummins, a former U.S. Attorney who represents the Malinowski family, told me.

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‘Can you take the dogs?’ Apache County deputy shoots 7 dogs that were abandoned and the county had no place for them

The deputy knew it was going to be bad.

“This is going to suck,” the bodycam records him saying.

He had corralled seven dogs that had been abandoned into a fenced-off area on their owners property.

And then he shot them, loaded their bodies into a truck and left them near a set of railroad tracks.

The incident happened in September 2023 in Adamana, an unincorporated community in Apache County about 26 miles northeast of Holbrook. The county doesn’t have animal control services and residents often complain about a problem with wild and stray dogs; one candidate for sheriff even has campaigned on a platform of dealing with the county’s abandoned dog problem.

The absence of animal control services in Apache County means that when there are dog issues, they’re often referred to a sheriff’s department whose policy is to try and place them with adoptive agencies. And sometimes, they can’t.

According to the deputy’s report, the couple that owned the dogs was going through a divorce and left the property with no plans of returning. During one visit, the deputy counted 10 dogs on the property. They had no food or water.

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Terrible: Police Officer Shoots Small Deaf, Blind Dog At Point-Blank Range

Bodycam video captured the moment a police officer in Sturgeon, Missouri, shot and killed a small blind and deaf dog for no apparent reason last week.

Responding to a call about a loose animal, the officer can be seen lazily trying to place a lasso around the canine’s neck before choosing to shoot it in the head instead of continuing to make attempts at leashing the animal.

Later in the video, the dog’s owner approaches the officer and confronts him over the unnecessary shooting.

When the sobbing owner tries getting answers, the cop is defensive and offers half-assed apologies.

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The May 4th Deaths: Kent State 54 Years Ago

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen killed four college students and wounded nine others – one of them, Dean Kahler, is paralyzed below the waist – on the campus of Kent State University. Nobody was found guilty of the bloodletting.

On that awful day, Guardsmen fired M-1 rifles, .45 pistols and a shotgun for 13 seconds, killing Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, ROTC student William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer who was on her way to class, while wounding nine others. Many Americans were outraged at the shootings but the vast majority were not, apparently believing that a nation at war was threatened by “radical” challenges on college campuses and elsewhere and that a government at war was perfectly justified in spying on its dissenting citizens and sending provocateurs to disrupt antiwar opponents. (On May 14-15, 1970, in Jackson, MS., Phillip Gibbs, a Jackson State junior, and James Green, a bystander and high school student, were killed by officers called to the scene following disturbances and student protests against the Vietnam war and continuing bias against blacks. A dozen students were also wounded by gunfire. Again, no one was ever convicted. (See, for example, Tim Spofford’s Lynch Street: The May 1970 Slayings at Jackson State College Kent State University Press).

Antiwar protests in Kent erupted following Richard Nixon’s TV speech announcing on April 30 that the US had invaded Cambodia, thus expanding a war he had once pledged to bring to an end. The following day Nixon denigrated antiwar students as “bums.”

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Arizona Police officer shoots, kills man in his home

A body cam footage has revealed an Arizona Police officer shooting and killing a man in his own home. The police officer claimed he saw the man holding a shotgun. 44-year-old Trinidad Ledesma was killed after police responded to a domestic dispute …

When the police turned the corner, Ledesma could be heard saying: “Don’t come in. Don’t come near, boss.” The officer said he saw a “black shotgun” in his right hand and immediately shot and killed him. During the incident, the officer called it an AR-15.

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New video shows teen kidnapping victim gunned down by cops as she ran toward them for help

Newly released video from law enforcement shows the moment California cops fatally shot an unarmed 15-year-old girl who was reported missing.

The harrowing footage released Monday shows Savannah Graziano slowly approaching officers along the 15 Freeway in Hesperia, Calif. on Sept. 27, 2022, one day after witnessing her father, Anthony John Graziano, 45, murder her mother, Tracy Martinez, ABC7 reported.

Moments later, gunfire erupts and Savannah is shot down in the crossfire.

“Stop shooting her! He’s in the car! Stop! She’s OK! He’s in the car! … Stop!” the deputy can be heard yelling.

The footage was released after reporters requested it under the California Public Records Act.

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Airport executive shot in firefight with federal agents at his home in Arkansas

The executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, was shot Tuesday as federal agents arrived at his home to serve a search warrant, police said.

Bryan Malinowski, 53, the airport’s executive director, was injured during a firefight after 6 a.m. as Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents arrived.

He “was injured with gunshot wounds and treated on scene by paramedics before being transported to a local hospital,” Arkansas State Police said in a statement, adding that his condition was unknown as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

One ATF agent received what police called a “non-life-threatening gunshot wound” and was also taken to a hospital, police said.

Malinowski’s older brother, Matthew Malinowski, 55 of Pennsylvania, was at his bedside Wednesday and said he didn’t know whether his brother would survive.

“We don’t know if he’s going to make it in the next 24 hours,” Matthew Malinowski told NBC News by phone in his first public comments. “He was shot in the head.”

Matthew Malinowski said his brother was on life support and doctors haven’t performed surgery “because they don’t think he’s gonna make it.”

He said Bryan Malinowski collected guns and other weapons, as well as coins, lived in an upper-middle class suburb and earned $253,000 a year.

“He has so much to lose,” the brother said.

A public records search of Bryan Malinowski showed no arrests or other run-ins with police.

Shea De Bruyn, a neighbor, told NBC News’ affiliate KARK of Little Rock that she was woken by five or six loud bangs.

“My heart was racing and the dogs were barking.” she said. “I’m just really curious as to what was going on just a few houses down.”

Neighbors also told KARK that on Tuesday evening they saw guns and ammunition being loaded onto a trailer, while firefighters carried a circular saw, crowbars and other tools into the house.

Matthew Malinowski said his brother met with Arkansas senators last week in Washington for official airport business.

“That tells you the circles he’s running in,” the older brother said.

The state police Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the case.

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Former L.A. County deputy sentenced to 30 days in jail for fatal 2019 shooting

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy will serve 30 days in jail in connection with a fatal 2019 shooting in which authorities fired more than 30 rounds into the back of a moving car, under the terms of a plea deal reached Friday in a downtown L.A. courtroom.

Andrew Lyons pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm and assault under color of authority in the killing of 24-year-old Ryan Twyman outside a Willowbrook apartment complex in June 2019. The case marks the first time in roughly two decades that an L.A. County law enforcement officer has been sentenced to jail or prison for an on-duty shooting.

Lyons also was placed on two years’ probation. He must give up his certification as a peace officer in California under the terms of the deal, meaning he can never serve as a law enforcement officer in the state again.

The former deputy initially was charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm against Lyons in 2022, nearly three years after he and another deputy, Christopher Muse, shot and killed Twyman. Muse was not charged in the shooting.

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Opelousas Police officer involved in shooting police chief turns herself in, sheriff reports

An Opelousas Police officer involved in a domestic shooting incident has surrendered to the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s office, according to a news release.

Officer Savannah Butler, 42, turned herself in Jan. 1 at the parish jail but then posted bonded of $22,000, according to Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz.

According to the release, a domestic issue Dec. 22 led to the negligent shooting of Opelousas Police Chief Graig LeBlanc and his wife, Capt. Crystal LeBlanc of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office. The investigation revealed that LeBlanc and his wife were shot at Butler’s home on Garnet Drive. 

Crystal Leblanc went to Butler’s home Dec. 22 to speak to her husband, according to the release. Chief LeBlanc walked outside, and the two began arguing. Butler then entered the doorway armed with a gun.  

Chief LeBlanc put his hand in front of Butler’s weapon to retrieve the gun and was shot in the hand, the release said. The bullet then traveled through his hand and hit his wife in the arm. After being shot, both admitted themselves to local hospitals. The LeBlancs were treated then released pending additional medical treatment.

The investigation revealed that Butler cleaned up the scene to cover up evidence prior to notifying the sheriff’s office, which constituted the charge of obstruction of justice.  

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