PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A blast that killed one man near U.S. Highway 26 between Portland and Mount Hood is believed to have been caused by a mixture that is used to make exploding targets for firearms practice, authorities said Friday.
The blast occurred in a ditch about 25 feet from the road and left a crater 11 feet wide, said Laura Pramuk, a Mount Hood National Forest spokeswoman.
The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the deceased in last Thursday’s explosion as Jeffrey Roger Williams, age 24, from Portland.
The death has been ruled a suicide.
On Friday, officials said evidence from the blast site indicates the substance that detonated is a mixture target shooters use to make targets explode, so they can see whether they hit them.
The explosion shut down part of the busy highway for most of the day on Thursday as officers used a robot to inspect a white car parked near the blast site. The robot and an officer wearing bomb-disposal gear pulled items out of the vehicle and examined them. A backpack was among the items removed from the vehicle.
Brian Bennett, a Seattle-based spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said no other explosives were found.
Authorities have not yet said what led up to the blast, or what the deceased was doing with the mixture for exploding targets.
Explosive target kits are available at gun stores and on the Internet. They generally consist of an oxidizer and a fuel that are mixed together and put into a container, which explodes when hit by a bullet.
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