Oregon man had fuse in pocket, prompting police and emergency response last week at Sacred Heart

The northeastern Oregon man who was airlifted to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center after an explosion at his home last week had a fuse and “liquid narcotics” in his pockets, authorities said Tuesday.

Marshall G. Cox, of Wallowa, was identified by the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office as the man brought to Sacred Heart with materials that prompted a massive emergency response on Jan. 4, including diversion of patients from the hospital’s emergency department. Security personnel at Sacred Heart reported the suspicious materials to police, who shut down roads and responded with an explosive disposal unit “out of an abundance of caution,” said Julie Humphreys, a spokeswoman for the Spokane Police Department.

The materials were determined not to be explosive, and authorities in Spokane do not anticipate recommending charges against Cox, Humphreys said.

While Cox was receiving treatment in Spokane, authorities with the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office were searching his home in the 71000 block of Whiskey Creek Road, just east of the town of roughly 800 people, said Sheriff Joel Fish in a phone call Tuesday. The investigation included the Oregon State Police, and investigators were on the scene until Friday afternoon, he said.

Emergency personnel were originally called to the home at around 11:40 a.m. Wednesday, when Cox called 911 and reported “he had blown his hand off,” according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. He was taken to the nearby Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland grounds and put on a Life Flight aircraft to Sacred Heart, the sheriff’s office said.

Fish said emergency personnel had already removed a jacket from Cox to care for his “traumatic hand injury.” Authorities did not search his pockets because he was “already strapped down to a stretcher,” Fish said.

Authorities in Oregon searching Cox’s home found “four glass containers of liquid and crystallized material and two devices with fuses,” according to the news release. The devices with fuses were removed from the home near Wallowa and dismantled, Fish said.

A Sacred Heart spokesperson said Tuesday that security staff discovered the items in Cox’s belongings and notified Spokane police. Cox has been discharged from Sacred Heart Medical Center, according to hospital officials.

Cox’s criminal history in Oregon includes convictions for felony offenses that include possession, manufacture and delivery of methamphetamine, according to case records out of Wallowa and Union counties.