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Upper Providence man shot during drug raid [updated]

The man shot himself almost immediately after authorities entered his home on a search warrant. He was in surgery early this morning.

June 11, 8:45pm: A representative at Hahnemann University Hospital said this evening that Mastroianni remains in critical condition.

The earlier version of this story follows.

An Upper Providence man was gravely wounded Thursday night when he shot himself in the head after authorities entered his home to conduct a search warrant in connection with a drug investigation.

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Upper Providence Chief of Police Donald Sherid said a task force including Montgomery County narcotics officers and a SWAT team arrived at the Orchard Court residence at about 9:45pm Thursday.

According to Sherid, the task force entered the residence and used a "flash bang" grenade, a non-lethal device intended to disorient its targets.

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John (or "James," by some accounts) Mastroianni, 48, fled to the basement of the residence. Moments later, shots were heard and members of the task force stopped their advance into the residence.

At that point, Sherid said, authorities believed a standoff may have been developing.

"It was quick," Sherid said. "It was probably over within a matter of seconds, but we had to determine [Mastroianni's status]."

Authorities evacuated four townhouses that were immediately adjacent to the target residence.

"We evacuated the immediate neighbors, because bullets will go through walls," Sherid said.

A bomb squad from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department was called to the scene. Bomb squad members used a remotely-controlled robot to enter the residence and locate Mastroianni, who authorities determined was lying on the floor in the basement.

"We actually had a visual on him [via the robot] and determined that he was injured, and the medics from the SWAT team got him out of here," Sherid said.

"It got resolved in two hours, which is actually a good time frame, considering. It's unfortunate it ended like it did," Sherid said.

"We appreciate it, you really cut our time down," Sherid said to the bomb squad members as they departed the scene at about 12:30am Friday.

Narcotics officers were still searching the house at that time.

"There are drugs in the house," Sherid said at the scene. He said the drugs were "mostly marijuana" and that Mastroianni was suspected of selling them, but declined to provide further details.

Later this morning, Upper Providence police distributed a press release in which they said that $8,900 in cash, drug ledgers, 24 firearms, and "several pounds of marijuana" were recovered from the residence, which had a marijuana "grow room" in the attic.

Police said they had been investigating alleged drug sales from the residence for six months.

The SWAT team was employed because the man was known to have multiple weapons registered in his name, Sherid said.

Asked whether search teams had also found weapons in the residence, Sherid said there was "a load of weapons of and ammunition."

"It's unfortunate what happened, but if he had chosen to take them [the SWAT team] on, it could have been a bad outcome. He had quite an arsenal," Sherid said.

Mastroianni's two sons were also taken into custody. They were being held for questioning Thursday night but were not related to the investigation and had not been charged, Sherid said.

One of the sons was home at the time of the raid, while the other arrived at the scene while the situation was unfolding.

"We always take everyone into custody who's in the house when we do a drug raid," Sherid said.

Mastroianni was transported via MedEvac helicopter to Hahnemann University hospital and was in surgery at 4:00am today, Upper Providence police said in a statement released this morning.

"This was a planned, high risk drug warrant. We do search warrants monthly, if not weekly, but we very rarely use a SWAT team. This was one [situation] where we knew there were guns in the house that were accessible to the guy [Mastroianni]. That's why we brought the SWAT team, and I'm glad we did. It turned out to be a good call," Sherid said.

"The main thing is nobody else got hurt," Sherid said.

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