A man suspected of fatally stabbing a co-worker at a Foster Farms poultry plant in Farmerville, Louisiana, in April 2022, is in custody after having been a fugitive since the incident occurred.
KNOE reported that Bruce Causey was arrested in Pearland, Texas, on New Year’s Eve after police there responded to a report of a verbal domestic incident, and Causey was apparently in possession of a firearm.
Causey initially gave Pearland police officers a false name, but he was properly identified after fingerprints were taken. He will face charges related to his firearm possession in Texas before being extradited to Louisiana.
Bruce Causey (Courtesy Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections)
On the morning of April 21, 2022, Ketrick Lavon Calhoun was fatally stabbed at the plant, and Causey, who was working at the facility as part of a work release program, fled the scene. A manhunt immediately ensued, but Causey remained on the lam until being apprehended in Texas.
According to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Causey was on work release while serving a sentence for three crimes: attempted possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of cocaine -- both of which were committed in East Baton Rouge Parish -- and second-degree battery, committed in Concordia Parish. He has been a state inmate since March 19, 2014. Causey had been with Union Parish Work Release since March 1, 2021.
Five months after the incident occurred, family members of Calhoun’s said they had hired a private investigator to help locate Causey.
Desiree M. Charbonnet, an attorney representing the Calhoun family, told KNOE: “It’s been a painful eight months for these family members. They’re just really relieved that this has happened and that this man has been apprehended, and they’re just looking forward to having this resolved so they can take a deep breath and reflect on the good things from their brother’s life.”
The Farmerville plant has been part of Foster Farms’ operations since 2010, when the company purchased the facility from Pilgrim’s Pride. The plant underwent an expansion and upgrade in 2017, in which the facility’s cut-up and deboning departments were modernized. The expansion enabled the company to increase its workforce at the facility by 50 workers.
