Man crushed by trash compactor after falling asleep in dumpster, Louisiana police say
A Louisiana man was killed by a garbage truck compactor this week, police said.
The body of Jermaine Watts, 42, was discovered Tuesday, Jan. 11, in the mechanical portion of the truck, Hammond police said in a news release. Authorities believe Watts was trying to escape the cold and fell asleep in a dumpster.
He was crushed when “the contents of the dumpster were loaded into a garbage truck equipped with a mechanical compactor ...” and the compactor function was turned on, the release says.
Watts suffered fatal injuries, police said, and there were no signs of foul play.
The results of an autopsy and toxicology report are pending.
Overnight temperatures dipped into the 30s in Hammond on Tuesday before rebounding to a high of 59 degrees, according to AccuWeather.
Hammond is about 59 miles northwest of New Orleans.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 7:37 AM with the headline "Man crushed by trash compactor after falling asleep in dumpster, Louisiana police say."