Former Dallas County Fire Marshal Arrested for Theft, Abuse of Official Capacity

Former Dallas County Fire Marshal Assistant Chief Zack Masri was arrested following allegations of misconduct and a series of workplace infractions.

Former Dallas County Fire Marshal Assistant Chief Zack Masri turned himself in to police Tuesday after being accused of theft and abuse of official capacity by the Texas Rangers, his legal counsel said.

Masri bonded out of the Wylie jail on Tuesday after posting a $15,000 bond, according to his lawyer Mark Lassiter.

The arrest comes four months after Masri was fired from his county job following a series of alleged infractions that include: pointing a gun at a colleague in a “joking” manner, calling female co-workers “bitches” and ghost-writing an email defending his office before having a county commissioner send it, according to personnel records obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Wylie Police Sgt. Donald English confirmed Masri’s arrest, but the arrest warrant issued by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office that provides details of the alleged incidents was not immediately available Tuesday evening. Lassiter told The News that Texas Rangers from the Texas Department of Public Safety were leading the investigation into Masri and that his client is not guilty of the accusations.

“While we understand the process, we look forward to proving Zack's innocence,” Lassiter said, declining to comment further.

It is unclear if Masri's charges are tied to his June 8 termination, but they are related to his time as a county employee.

English said Masri was charged with three counts of misdemeanor abuse of official capacity, which relates to a public servant violating a law relating to their office, according to the Texas penal code. Masri was also charged with misdemeanor theft of property of $100 to $750 and felony theft of property between $2,500 and $30,000, according to English.

Masri, 40, worked for the Dallas County Fire Marshal's Office for nearly six years and was responsible for overseeing its building security division, which has come under scrutiny for testing the limits of its power.

State lawmakers and the body overseeing law enforcement in Texas raised concerns last year that the Dallas County Fire Marshal’s office acts more like a security force than a fire safety agency.

In this fiscal year, the building security division has 107 positions and a budget of $15 million while the Fire Marshal has 12 positions and a $2.8 million budget, according to the county budget.

Masri’s first infraction this year, according to human resources records, came after he pushed back on the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office taking the lead on a multi-agency active shooter drill.

Emergency services Chief Scott Forster announced on Feb. 12 the sheriff’s office would lead the upcoming drill. Four days later, Masri drafted an email to Forster in the voice of County Commissioner Theresa Daniel stating the appointment of the sheriff’s office as training lead was done “despite the direction I previously provided,” according to a human resources investigation.

Fire Marshal Captain Philip Brown told human resources workers he hand-delivered Masri’s draft email to Daniel. Daniel sent the email that afternoon to Forster and the four other county commissioners, records show.

Masri was given “verbal counseling” on the incident. A month later, Dallas County Administrator Darryl Martin asked human resources to investigate.

On April 12, while the email issue was under investigation, firearm instructor Tony Hinojosa emailed Fire Chief Robert De Los Santos to report an officer’s mishandling of a gun five days earlier at the county administration building during a debrief of a bomb threat.

Hinojosa said he witnessed the officer, later confirmed to be Masri, unholster his gun around others in “a sul position,” where a gun is pulled to the body and pointed down.

Then Assistant Chief Michael Barber wrote in an internal review Masri pulled the gun “in a joking” manner while talking with another employee. A captain said he witnessed Masri holding his gun in the sul position while talking to someone and intervened, saying: “What are you doing? Put that away,” according to a county memo.

Masri received a written warning May 7, records show. He previously did not respond to questions from The News sent to him or his lawyers.

The day after the gun incident, security systems analyst Allen Rucker said Masri entered his office, began picking an argument and cursed at him, according to an email he sent to De Los Santos. Rucker said Masri called female colleagues “bitches” and made a comment he took as a threat.

Records do not indicate whether Rucker’s complaint was investigated. The human resources investigation into the email concluded May 19 and Masri was fired June 8 for violating employee conduct rules and insubordination.

Masri is appealing the termination from his $160,000-a-year job.

© 2026 The Dallas Morning News. Visit www.dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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