After the brutal brawl that took place at a Montgomery, Alabama, boat dock, authorities have officially announced that three men involved have been charged with assault.
Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert announced assault charges against Richard Roberts, 48; Allen Todd, 23; and Zachery Shipman, 25, during a news conference on Tuesday. The Chief confirmed one of those individuals is in custody and the other two are expected to turn themselves in to police Tuesday afternoon.
Video clips showing several white men attacking a Black male dockworker have since gone viral. As well as other video footage that shows people coming to the dock worker’s aid, resulting in a brawl that social media has had a field day with. Social media users have also shared memes and pointed out that the fighters were split along racial lines.
“We were unable to present any inciting a riot or racially biased charges at this time,” Albert told reporters, adding that the situation did not have elements of a hate crime.
Albert said police are also looking to speak with Reggie Gray, 42, a Black man who was captured in video footage wielding a folding chair in the beatdown. Police are expected to bring more charges in the brawl, NBC News reported
Albert also mentioned eyewitness testimonies—that a group of white private boaters attacked Damien Pickett, the black dockworker after he tried to move their pontoon so that the Harriott II Riverboat carrying over 200 passengers could dock. The riverboat waited for at least 30 minutes as its captain and Pickett tried to get the group of rowdy boaters to move their watercraft, the outlet reported.
That’s when witnesses say several members of the private pontoon attacked Pickett.
“They just didn’t think the rules applied to them. It was so avoidable. This never had to have happened,” a witness, Leslie Mawhorter, 52, who was aboard the Harriott II, previously told NBC News. “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.”
The riverboat captain called police around 7 p.m. local time, with officers arriving at the scene at 7:18 p.m.
Police detained, questioned, and then released thirteen people, the police chief said, adding that the local FBI and district attorney’s offices are involved in the ongoing investigation.
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