Police have arrested a Bountiful man who allegedly stole pain medication from a neighbor who was dying of cancer and then claimed he took the morphine in order to "bless" it.

On Friday, the man, 30, went to visit the neighbor at his home, near 100 East and 500 North, said Bountiful police Lt. Randy Pickett. Many of the patient's friends and family had gathered to say goodbye, said Pickett.

The man visited the patient at his bedside and then excused himself to use the bathroom, Pickett said. Other visitors noticed a vial of morphine was missing from the patient's nightstand, Pickett said.

They confronted the man in the bathroom, who denied he had taken the morphine, Pickett said. The man struggled with the other visitors when they told him they were calling police, but the visitors kept him in the house.

As police were arresting the man, he shook his foot and his shoe fell off, Pickett said. In the shoe was a syringe containing morphine, Pickett said.

The man claimed he took the morphine not to use it, but to bless it, Pickett said.

"He said he withdrew some of it out of the bottle and was going to make the sign of the cross over the remaining morphine," Pickett said. "He ended up squirting it into his mouth."

The man said he was atheist but recently converted to Catholicism, Pickett said. He was taken to a hospital for observation and then booked into jail, Pickett said. He was released this week on bail.

The cancer patient died over weekend.