The riverboat co-captain has shared his side of the story of the viral brawl in Alabama.
As we previously reported, a video went viral earlier this week of a nasty fight that broke out on the dock of Riverfront Park in Montgomery. According to Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert, the massive altercation began around 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Harriott II Riverboat was trying to dock in its reserved spot but ran into a problem when a small private boat blocked them by illegally parking there. Employees on the riverboat asked the other vessel to vacate the space, but the group on board refused to do so.
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The co-captain of Harriott II Riverboat Damien Pickett was sent to talk with the other boat and get them to move. But when he approached them, he was allegedly confronted by Richard Roberts, 48, Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, “in a very hostile manner.” Some words were exchanged between everyone, and things quickly escalated from there as fists went flying! Eventually, more people in the area joined the first, resulting in utter chaos. See (below):
OMG…
The Montgomery Police Department soon intervened and detained 13 people. They were interviewed on Saturday before being released from police custody. Since then, four people have been arrested on assault charges. Richard first turned himself into the police. He was charged with two counts of third-degree assault for allegedly punching a 16-year-old employee.
The Montgomery Police Department said Allen, Zachary, and a 21-year-old woman named Mary Todd later turned themselves in too. All three of them were charged with one misdemeanor count of third-degree assault. And there “likely” could be more charges coming up, Police Chief Albert said.
He shared in a press conference this week that cops asked Reggie Gray to come in for questioning after he was allegedly caught hitting a woman in the head with a folding chair. Albert added:
“As we identify additional folks that we need to talk to, we will ask them to come in and we’ll try to locate them and do further investigation to see if the charges are appropriate.”
But what about Pickett? He hasn’t spoken out about the situation yet. But details from his written deposition to Montgomery Police were revealed on Thursday, shedding more light on what went down that day.
According to NBC News, Pickett recalled crew members on Harriott II asking the three men to move their boat “five or six times.” Even passengers on board shouted at them to “move your boat. You’re in the way.” However, Pickett alleged the men gave “us the finger” for about three minutes instead. Since the group wouldn’t move, he and another dockhand took matters into their own hands. They untied the pontoon boat, shifted it “three steps to the right,” and tied it back to the post so the riverboat could dock.
But the three men weren’t happy about that. Pickett said that “two people ran up behind me” and one man in a red hat began yelling at him to not “touch that boat motherf**ker or we will beat your a**.” The captain responded:
“‘No, you won’t.’”
The men continued to threaten Pickett and called another white man over to join in. Pickett noticed that “they both were very drunk,” and another guy approached all of them to “try to calm them down.” Soon, the small boat’s owner, dressed in a gray shirt, red shorts, and a sun visor, came over. When Pickett began to explain the situation and noted the signs about where to park were taken down, the owner “started getting loud … He got into my face. ‘This belongs to the f**king public.’ I told him this was a city dock.” That’s when all hell broke loose. Pickett remembered:
“By that time, a tall, older white guy came over and hit me in the face. I took my hat off and threw it in the air. Somebody hit me from behind. I started choking the older guy in front of me so he couldn’t anymore, pushing him back at the same time. Then the guy in the red shorts came up and tackled me … I went to the ground. I think I hit one of them.”
Things got so heated, Pickett claimed to law enforcement, they threatened to beat him to death! WHAT?! He recalled Allen, Zachary, and Richard were yelling at him during the attack:
“I’m gonna kill you, motherf**ker. Beat your ass, motherf**ker.”
WTF?! He added:
“I can’t tell you how long it lasted. I grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life.”
At one point, a tall Black man and a security guard came over to help Pickett and “were pulling them off” him. When he eventually got back on his feet, he noticed “one of my co-workers had jumped into the water and was pushing people and fighting.” Despite being in the middle of the brawl, Pickett continued to do his job! While someone held him, he asked to be released and gave the orders to the captain to park the riverboat:
“My nose was running … and I could hear passengers and co-workers arguing with the people who attacked me.”
As The Harriott II dropped down the ramp to let passengers off the vessel following the docking, Pickett’s nephew “ran off the boat and went after them”:
“I was screaming for him to come back.”
However, his nephew did not listen. The altercation continued to escalate:
“The security guard was trying to get the lady in red to leave; she wouldn’t listen. People from off the boat and spectators were coming down the back end of the dock. The guy who started it all was choking my sister. I hit him, grabbed her and moved her … I turned around and MPD had a taser in my face. I told him I was the one being attacked and could I finish doing my job.”
This must have been so scary for Pickett, especially when his family members got involved. After the chaos, Pickett apologized to the police “for the inconvenience.” He continued in his written account:
“They all said I did nothing wrong. Some of them were giving me cards with their names and numbers on it. Some said they had it all on film, so I pointed them out to MPD.”
Pickett ended up going to the emergency room, where doctors told him he had some bruised ribs and bumps on his head. Thankfully, he had no broken bones or other serious injuries.
What a wild and horrible situation, Perezcious readers. Reactions? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via NBC News/YouTube, Montgomery Police Department]
