I would like to see the complete background on this guy.

PORT RICHEY, Fla. – The mayor of Port Richey, Florida, is “lucky he’s not dead” after firing two shots at a SWAT team at his house to serve a warrant, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco told reporters Thursday.

Dale Massad, who was elected mayor in 2015, was arrested by the officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and accused of practicing medicine without a license. He now also faces two charges of attempted murder.

Nocco said no one was hurt at Massad’s home after the predawn incident in which the sheriff’s SWAT officers were assisting FDLE.

According to a complaint affidavit, SWAT officers knocked several times on the front doors of the mayor’s home and tried unsuccessfully to use a battering ram to force them open. Another officer tried shooting the locks of the doors with a shotgun.

After they swung the doors open, a SWAT member set off a flash bang grenade inside the doorway.

When officers heard two shots, they retreated behind an armored vehicle, the court document says.

The mayor had a gun in his hand, so officers ordered him to drop the weapon, Nocco said.

“If somebody is firing at us we have every means and every right to fire back at them,” the sheriff said. “They did what they thought was appropriate at the time.

“He’s lucky he’s not dead.”

Authorities said Massad, 68, was in jail Thursday. It is unclear whether he has an attorney. CNN called his home number and reached out to family members but didn’t get a response.

Massad relinquished his medical license in 1992 but was still practicing medicine, the FDLE said. Patients were coming to his home, the agency said in a news release.

“He had performed medical procedures at his residence, with one procedure requiring additional hospital treatment for the patient,” the statement said.

Port Richey is on the Gulf of Mexico and has about 2,800 residents.

LINK:https://wgntv.com/2019/02/22/swat-team-went-to-mayors-house-with-a-warrant-and-he-opened-fire-at-them/

So why did they have to send a SWAT team for this?

To me a whole lot of stupid on both sides.

Seems like another one of those unwarranted predawn swat raids unless there are some other things not mentioned in the story.

They must have thought Roger Stone was in there too.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
They must have thought Roger Stone was in there too.

Yeah, seems like overkill that almost produced the result they surely claim they were trying to prevent.

quote:

Originally posted by am94pm:
So why did they have to send a SWAT team for this?

To me a whole lot of stupid on both sides.

That's the question I want to hear answered too.
I don't understand why you wouldn't arrest the guy out of his house and then search it with a warrant unless there were some very special circumstances.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
They must have thought Roger Stone was in there too.

^^^
I guess I grew up too many decades ago, but I thought SWAT was for purposes other than serving non-violent individuals at their homes.

Medical licensure.... when does the IRS and the local building code departments get their own SWAT teams?

Maybe more information will come out. Seems like there are a lot of questions, many of which we may never have the answers to. I’m glad that nobody got hurt.

Here is some more information from the Tampa Bay paper. I think it raises more questions than it answers.

PORT RICHEY — Fraud detectives are investigating whether Mayor Dale Massad, arrested during a raid on his home Thursday morning, received insurance payments for treating patients without a medical license.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Thursday he has directed the Department of Financial Services to determine whether Massad billed insurance companies for medical procedures he is accused of conducting at his home.

Massad turned in his license 37 years ago after the state Board of Medicine filed several counts against him in the death of a 3-year-old patient — malpractice, faulty record-keeping, human experimentation without consent and delegating duties to an unqualified person.



PREVIOUS: Port Richey mayor ‘lucky he’s not dead’ after shots fired during FDLE arrest

The fraud investigation gets underway as Massad, 68, makes his first court appearance at 1 p.m. Friday to face charges including practicing medicine without a license and attempted murder.

He was arrested at his home Thursday by agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement but not before firing twice at deputies who came to assist, the Paco County Sheriff’s Office said.

The agents started looking into Massad four months ago after receiving a tip from the Port Richey Police Department.

In late September 2018, FDLE set up an undercover operation, according to an arrest report.

Someone feigning a knee injury called Massad and arranged to meet with him, according to the report. Massad inspected the knee, diagnosed a tendon injury, and said he could find the proper medication to inject, according to the report.

In separate interviews, agents talked with two other people who said they had been treated by Massad.


One patient told agents that between December 2017 and April, Massad diagnosed a problem and removed an object from the lower back area, according to the report. In addition, he injected the patient’s shoulder with cortisone, an anti-inflammatory medication, the report said.

The other person told agents that in August, Massad anesthetized an ankle, cleaned a cut and sutured it shut, the report said.

In addition, another witness told investigators he saw Massad use a computer to order medications online between April and August .

Anyone with information about potential insurance fraud was asked to call (800) 378-0445.

LINK:https://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/port-richey-mayor-arrested-in-raid-on-home-now-faces-insurance-fraud-investigation-20190222/

We need more facts, but if what we have is everything, someone needs fired. SWAT, battering ram, shooting out locks, flash bangs....for a nonviolent crime?

If that's the total sum of it, this department needs to fire everyone and start over. I hate no knock warrants and wish we'd never use them.

I read (sorry, no link) on one news site the day it happened that he had had previous encounters with the police and was known to be armed, thus the reason for the SWAT team being asked to assist.

quote:

he had had previous encounters with the police and was known to be armed, thus the reason for the SWAT team being asked to assist.

Thus the reason to file charges and ask him to turn himself in, or even perhaps pull him over and take him into custody on a traffic stop.

I don't get the "he may be violent" so "we must get him at a time and place that increases the odds of violence".

They were just trying to seize the property prior to conviction.

quote:

Originally posted by am94pm:
So why did they have to send a SWAT team for this?

To me a whole lot of stupid on both sides.

Too many Red Bulls early in the morning.

The sheriff said there is a suspicion that the mayor may have been under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting. He also said Massad yelled at officers that he was not going back to jail.

“When somebody says 'I'm not going back to jail' that either means it's going to be a shootout, they're either going to flee from us somehow...or possibly suicide by cop," Nocco said. "He's the one who made the decision to shoot [at] us. He's the one who is going to jail."

According to FOX13, the 69-year-old Massad was previously arrested in August on a domestic battery charge. Massad now faces charges for attempted murder and practicing medicine without a license.

---
Massad has a history of drug use, violence and threats and owns several guns, which is why deputies raided the 3,200-square-foot, waterfront home rather than make a routine arrest.

Link.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/flo...ical-practice-police

The reason for the pre-dawn SWAT raid complete with the use of an armored personnel carrier was...

... DRUGS might be present.

Drugs, drugs, drugs.

Drugs that were ordered over the internet.

Probably via the Dark Net.

It part of the WAR ON DRUGS.

joel9507, the IRS has SWAT teams. No kidding.

The local building zoning office was getting an MRAP until the unpleasantness in Missouri a few years back out an end to those plans.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

he had had previous encounters with the police and was known to be armed, thus the reason for the SWAT team being asked to assist.

Thus the reason to file charges and ask him to turn himself in, or even perhaps pull him over and take him into custody on a traffic stop.

I don't get the "he may be violent" so "we must get him at a time and place that increases the odds of violence".

The traffic stop rise is how the Loudoun Sheriff's department helped the FBI take down a no-kidding armed and planning a mass shooting ISIS fighter about a mile from my home.

Since we're all speculating, here's my speculation: There's something about this "white collar" defendant that suggested a need for more tools than a FDLE squad would normally bring to a party. If the underlying crime is "white collar" but the underlying PERSON is scary as hell / crazy as hell / has a history of violence / already communicated intent to harm himself or others if he was arrested, you bring the cool kids with the cool stuff.

I work almost exclusively "white collar" violations, but my last few "white collar" arrests involved "white collar" defendants who happened to also have prior felony assault records. According to informants, one had also been recently dabbling in meth. Trivia for the day: Meth users commonly have paranoid hallucinations (the world is out to get them, everyone is against them.) The meth-head had also been trying to get a gun on the "alternative" market (prohibited possessor, couldn't get one legally.) In all three cases, each was a train wreck in their personal life as it became more and more apparent they'd be charged.

Would anyone here have volunteered to walk up to their front doors, with just that info, and politely asked them to walk on in to the courthouse for booking? How about waited for them to get "mobile" behind the wheel of a car/truck and then tried to traffic-stop them? 'Cause, you know, white-collar and all.

Side note, NOT arresting them is generally NOT an option.

Again, just speculating.