Assault charges rain down as officials continue investigation into riverfront fight

The incident started on Saturday when a group of white men attacked a Black dockworker at the Riverfront, a popular summer destination featuring a riverboat, park, theater and stadium.

Assault charges are rolling in as authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding a weekend brawl at the Montgomery, Alabama, Riverfront.

On Tuesday, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert announced misdemeanor assault charges against Richard Roberts, 48; Zachery Shipman, 25; and Allen Todd, 23, NBC News reported.

Albert stated that one had surrendered and the other two were supposed to do so Tuesday afternoon.

The police chief said in addition to charging those three white men, authorities also are interested in speaking with Reggie Gray, a 42-year-old Black man shown in social media videos brandishing a folding chair.

A 16-year-old white dockworker’s family is also requesting charges after being attacked by the white boaters while running a nearby vessel. 

The incident started on Saturday when a group of white men attacked a Black dockworker, Damien Pickett, at the Riverfront, a popular summertime destination featuring a riverboat, a park, a theater, and a stadium.

Albert corroborated eyewitness accounts of the event, in which white private boaters attacked Pickett as he tried to move their pontoon to make room for the Harriott II Riverboat. The riverboat’s captain and Pickett waited with the more than 200 guests for at least 30 minutes while attempting to persuade the rowdy boaters to move their vessels. The private pontoon users then launched a coordinated assault on Pickett.

“They just didn’t think the rules applied to them. It was so avoidable. This never had to have happened,” eyewitness Leslie Mawhorter told NBC. “I knew something was going to go down, because their attitude was just, ‘You can’t tell us what to do.’ They were going to be confrontational regardless of who you were.”

Around 7 p.m. local time, the riverboat captain reportedly phoned the police, who arrived at 7:18. Authorities detained, questioned, and then released 13 people.

Following the incident, several videos of the altercation started to go viral online, many hailing a group of Black men for defending Pickett from the white boaters.

Albert responded that, based on the components of this incident, none would make the circumstance a hate crime. “We were unable to present any inciting a riot or racially biased charges at this time,” he said, NBC reported.

The area’s FBI and district attorney’s office are involved in the investigation. Police anticipate filing additional charges.

“There was no need for this event to take the path it did,” Albert said, according to NBC. “The people of Montgomery, we’re better than that. We’re a fun city, and we don’t want this type of activity to shed a dark eye on what this city’s all about.”

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