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Port Richey Mayor Arrested After Firing Shots at SWAT Deputies

Dale Glen Massad | Pasco Sheriff | Arrests

Pasco sheriff’s deputies were trying to serve a search warrant the mayor’s home. No one was injured.

PORT RICHEY – The Port Richey mayor was arrested Thursday (Feb. 21) after he fired at deputies who were trying to serve  search warrant at his home, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies held their fire and no one was injured. Now, the mayor is facing local charges as well as the state level charges that prompted the raid on his home.

Dale Glen Massad, 68, of Port Richey, was charged with attempted murder for firing on Pasco deputies.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has also charged him with practicing medicine without a license. Mossad voluntarily turned in his medical license in 1992 in place of revocation.

According to the FDLE, the charges came after a four-month investigation revealed he had been practicing medicine from his home. Not only did Massad have patients come to his home for various treatments, state investigators said, he had performed medical procedures at his residence with one procedure requiring additional hospital treatment for the patient. Those charges will be handled by the Florida attorney general’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Pasco deputies were assisting the FDLE in executing a search warrant in connection with the state charges when SWAT team members knocked on Massad’s door about 5 a.m.

One deputy banged on Massad’s door a total of three times and announced themselves as law enforcement. When no one answered, another SWAT deputy hit the door three or four times with a ram, When the door did not open, a third deputy fired at it with a shotgun and deputies hit the door with a ram two more times. When they realized the door opened outward, they pulled it open and one deputy placed a “distractio device” just inside the door. The device made a loud bang and emitted bright light.

After the device went off, one of the deputies said he heard two “pops” of gunfire.

Deputies withdrew from the front door, took cover behind a vehicle, and put a spotlight on the house. Deputies said they could see Massad upstairs, with a gun in his hand, using a cell phone.

Deputies said Massad later told them that he was awakened by loud banging on his front door that he first thought was the Port Richey Police Department. He said he got up, grabbed the .40-caliber pistol he kept on his headboard, came out of his bedroom and shot twice down the hall in the direction of the front door. He claimed to have asked deputies to show him the search warrant.

But deputies said they announced themselves as law enforcement and a witness who lives in the home said he heard them say they were law enforcement.

Pasco Sheriff | FDLE | Crime | Arrests | Attempted Murder | Tampabay News

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