Oceanside

A 32-year-old nurse at Tri-City Hospital was arrested for being under the influence of cocaine while he was on duty in the hospital’s emergency room, the Oceanside police said Wednesday.

Daniel Giroux of San Diego was booked into the County Jail at Vista on suspicion of possession of narcotics, being under the influence of a controlled substance, first-degree burglary and possession of a hypodermic syringe.

According to Oceanside police spokesman Tom Bussey, about 6 a.m. Tuesday the hospital staff discovered the disappearance of several narcotics from the emergency room’s medicine locker, including five vials of liquid cocaine, six tablets of Vicodin, a container of morphine and one vial of Immovar.

When police arrived on the scene, they found a vial of cocaine and two hypodermic syringes in Giroux’s pockets, Bussey said. The missing narcotics, which appeared to have been tampered with, were hidden in the emergency room, he said.

Giroux reportedly told the officers that he had administered the missing drugs to a patient but the hospital showed no record of that. Giroux was released from jail Wednesday morning on $3,250 bail, authorities said.