Florida mayor arrested for shooting at police

The mayor of a Florida town has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting at police officers as they attempted to arrest him for allegedly practicing medicine without a licence.

Dale Massad, 68, is accused of opening fire on a Swat team as they forced their way into his home to deliver a search warrant in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday.

According to police, Massad “fired repeatedly at deputies with a .40-caliber handgun when they busted down his door to arrest him”, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

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Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said that the deputies were unharmed, and had retreated and taken up positions outside the house. He added that the officers were preparing to use gas when Massad surrendered, says the Miami Herald.

“He’s lucky he’s not dead,” Nocco said.

Despite a history of brushes with the law, Massad was elected mayor of Port Richey, a small city of 2,800 around 40 miles north of Tampa, in 2015 and was re-elected without opposition in 2017. He also served on the city council from 2000 to 2008.

The most recent of his long list is misdemeanours was in August, when he was arrested on domestic violence charges, although the case was later dropped.

Nocco described Massad “a known drug user with a history of violence”, ABC News reports.

“When you mention his name, the reputation isn’t the greatest,” he said. "People are probably thinking to themselves, ‘Well, it’s about time.’”

As well as two counts of attempted homicide, Massad also faces the original charge of practicing medicine without a licence.

Police received tip-offs that he was seeing patients and performing medical procedures at his house despite giving up his medical licence in 1992, “after the Board of Medicine alleged his errors in care led to a three-year-old patient’s death in 1990”, ABC News reports.

The arrest of the mayor “throws the future of Port Richey’s executive office into question”, adds the Tampa Bay Times.