Fla. mayor lucky he’s not shot

A Florida mayor fired two shots at deputies early Thursday at his home before he was arrested for practicing medicine without a license, authorities said.

No one was injured, and Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad was taken into custody “without further incident.”

SWAT team members of the the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office had announced their presence at 4:40 a.m. when shots were fired. Deputies did not return fire, the sheriff ’s office said.

“He’s lucky he’s not dead,” Sheriff Chris Nocco said during a press conference Thursday. “He shot rounds at us.” Massad, 68, will face multiple counts of attempted homicide, Nocco said.

The sheriff added that the deputies knew that the mayor was a drug user who owned multiple weapons.

“The suspect made statements he does not want to go back to jail,” Nocco said.

“The suspect has a previous history of violence. That’s what we were dealing with today.”

The sheriff said that Massad had drugs in the house.

“Unfortunately, when you go through people who have been living in Pasco County for multiple years and you mention his name, the reputation isn’t the greatest,” Nocco said. “The reputation was there that you’re not dealing with the most upstanding of elected officials.”

Massad and his girlfriend were both arrested last year after causing a disturbance, and he was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.

Nocco compared Massad to former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, who was infamously arrested for illegal drug possession in 1990.

“This is Port Richey’s version,” Nocco said.