USCG: 15-year-old dies on shrimp boat

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The city of Bayou La Batre is mourning the death of a 15-year-old boy killed in a tragic accident on a shrimp boat. It happened in the Gulf of Mexico.

Steven Branch was killed Saturday night, August 11 while working on a shrimp boat off the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Branch had just finished eighth grade at Alba Middle School.

He was working on board the Nettie Q shrimp boat Saturday night.

Coast Guard Officials said Branch was killed after getting stuck in a winch. It's a device that pulls in and lets out cable for hauling in shrimp.

"The individual had baggy shorts, and his shorts had got caught up into the capstan, or the drum, of the winch that pulled lines," Lt. Mike Clausen with the U.S. Coast Guard said. "He was actually pulled in to the winch, and suffered a head injury."

Family members gathered Monday afternoon in Bayou la Batre. Branch's sister was too shaken up to talk.

Her husband said he was on the shrimp boat when the accident happened.

He didn't give his name, but he called the incident a freak accident.

"He (Branch) wasn't laying no cable. He was just caught on the head, on the winch," he said.

Even if people didn't know Branch, they know his family.

Branch's death was the talk of Russellville, a well known bait shop Bayou La Batre.

"Fifteen-years-old, 15-years-old. So sad, very sad," Pearl Bosarge said.

"Super nice people. I hate it for the whole family, that's hard for them," Kenny Minor said.