Cops: Man eats bath salts, fires gun in SC home

COWPENS, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a Cowpens man told Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputies that he fired a gun inside his home and thought there was a dead person in the back room after eating bath salts and drinking.

Investigators charged 31-year-old Patrick Powell with attempted murder after he came out of his Cowpens home around 5 a.m. Sunday.

Powell told deputies he was drinking, taking tranquilizers and ate bath salts before the shooting. Bath salts contain drugs that cause users to get high, but also can cause hallucinations and paranoia.

Powell says he was afraid because someone tried to break in his home and there was a body inside. Officers found no body and no one else in the home.

It wasn’t clear if Powell had a lawyer.