Mar-Jac Poultry officials are silent on workplace death of Hattiesburg teen
Mar-Jac Poultry officials declined to comment on the details of what happened to a 16-year-old who died while working at the Hattiesburg facility.
"Due to an ongoing investigation, we have no comment at this time," a company spokesperson at the company's headquarters in Gainseville, Georgia, said Tuesday.
The official would not give her name.
It is illegal for minors to work in any hazardous occupation, including meat processing, according to the Federal Code of Regulations and the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is unclear whether the work the teen was doing was hazardous.
The incident occurred around 8 p.m. Friday at the factory on James Street.
2021 fatality: Man dies of injuries after Mar-Jac poultry plant accident involving 'heavy machinery'
Police were called to the scene and a death investigation was initiated, a spokesperson for Hattiesburg Police Department said in a news release.
No other information regarding the incident was provided to the media.
Forrest County Deputy Coroner Lisa Klem said the teen was a Hattiesburg resident, but declined to release his name since he was a minor.
The teen's death is the third at Mar-Jac since December 2020, when 33-year-old Joel Velasco Toto and another person were "horse-playing with machinery in the facility," according to Hattiesburg police.
In June 2021, 48-year-old Bobby Butler died from his injuries following an incident involving heavy equipment.
2020 incident: Mar-Jac Poultry employee dies from injuries sustained in workplace accident
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Hattiesburg teen killed at MS chicken processing plant
