Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order suspending, immediately, the mayor of Port Richey, Dale Glen Massad, who was arrested on Thursday for practicing medicine without a license.
DeSantis noted that Massad is “clearly unable to continue serving” as mayor of Port Richey, in western Pasco County, and that the suspension was done in the “best interest” of the nearly 2,800 inhabitants of the small town.
Massad, a 68-year-old Republican who was re-elected in 2017 for another three-year term, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of practicing medicine without a license, accreditation that he lost in 1992, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times newspaper.
The soldiers went to their house at dawn, announced who they were and what they were there for, and the mayor responded with gunfire, according to Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco.
The sheriff defined the mayor as a “violent” man who is known to “use drugs,” adding that he will have to respond to justice for shooting the agents.
Nocco added that Massad was “very lucky” that the officers of his unit did not respond to his two shots.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement that “no one is above the law” and that her department will investigate and prosecute any crime “regardless of the political or economic position” of whoever commits it.
The mayor had been arrested in 2018 for domestic violence and on Thursday said he was not willing to go to jail again, according to the sheriff.
