CNN
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Police say additional charges are likely as they investigate a large, chaotic caught-on-video brawl at a riverfront dock in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saturday that has so far resulted in arrest warrants for three men.
The incident began as a dispute over a dockside parking spot at Riverfront Park that led to the co-captain of a riverboat being attacked by a group that had parked their pontoon in the riverboat’s spot, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert said Tuesday.
It then escalated into a large fight that involved punches, a chair to the head and at least one person in the water.
Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday for three men, all of them members of the private pontoon boat, Albert said at a press conference.
Richard Roberts, 48, was charged with two counts of third-degree assault, while Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, were each charged with one such count, Albert said. The chief described the three as White men.
One of those men has surrendered and is in custody, and the two others are expected to be in custody soon, Albert said. He did not specify who was in custody.
But the investigation is far from over, with police having “have many, many more interviews to conduct,” the chief said.
“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,” Albert said.
A man seen wielding a chair in social media videos during the brawl is being asked to contact police, Albert said.
The fight largely broke down along racial lines in a city with a fraught history of racial violence. Investigators looked into whether there was enough evidence to charge for a hate crime or inciting a riot, but the actions did not meet the criteria, Albert said.
In all, 13 people were detained and questioned for several hours Saturday before being released, the chief said.
“I don’t think we’re near finished,” the chief said. “We have a lot more work to do on this.”
“We have hundreds of videos and witness statements at this time and, I would say at this point it is highly likely that more arrests and more individuals will face charges,” Albert told CNN’s Sara Sidner Tuesday night.
The victims in the assaults were identified as Damien Pickett, the Black co-captain of the riverboat, and a 16-year-old White boy who had transported Pickett to the dock in a small boat.
Here’s what we know about what unfolded at the riverfront dock Saturday and the ongoing investigation.
It all began around 7 p.m. Saturday when the Harriott II Riverboat – carrying 227 passengers – returned to the waterfront and tried to dock in its designated, reserved spot but found the private boat docked in its space, the chief said.
The Harriott and its passengers waited for around 45 minutes as the captain tried to reach the operators of the boat using PA system and “they were only responded to with obscene gestures, curse words and taunting,” Albert said.
Pickett, the co-captain, was then picked up from the riverboat by another vessel and brought to the dock to try to have a conversation with the boat owners and get them to move, Albert said. There, the boat owners confronted the captain in a “very hostile manner,” the chief said.
“The co-captain was doing his job,” the chief said. “He was simply trying to move the boat in just enough to where the cruise ship could park safely in its in its identified location. However, it quickly escalated.”
Pickett was “attacked by several members of the private boat,” the chief said. The co-captain received treatment at a local hospital later that night, Albert added.
Several crew members of the Harriott II then came to Pickett’s defense, according to the chief.
The 16-year-old employee of the smaller vessel that took the co-captain from the Harriott to the dock also ended up getting assaulted by someone from the pontoon boat, Albert said. The teen’s mother signed a warrant on one of the individuals who attacked her son, he added.
The Harriott’s captain first called police to report a disturbance at 7 p.m., then police received another call at 7:15 p.m. The first officers arrived at the scene 7:18 p.m., according to the police chief.
The fight was “brought on by reckless individuals who did not use good judgment and caused an event that certainly was avoidable,” Mayor Steven Reed said. “That said, the police department reacted very swiftly and very intentionally to address the matter, as did other citizens in the community.”
The police chief said local investigators worked with the FBI to examine whether to file hate crimes charges on this case.
“We were unable to present any inciting a riot or racially biased charges at this time,” Albert said during the news conference Tuesday.
The chief told CNN the police department had spent hours investigating what happened to ensure that they get it right.
“Knowing Montgomery’s history, knowing all the civil rights things that we went through here in the city of Montgomery and what the means to the nation, we were very amped up to get this right,” Albert told CNN.
As the video of the brawl went viral online, it turned the spotlight on Montgomery’s racial history. The city played a central role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslaved people would arrive on Montgomery’s riverfront to later be sold in the city’s slave markets.
“As new developments come forward, we will amend charges as necessary … If it rises to the level of hate crimes, if it rises to the level of inciting a riot, or whatever that looks like … we will do just that,” Albert told CNN’s Sara Sidner Tuesday night.
The incident was captured in now viral social media video, showing it escalating from the initial interaction with the co-captain and then eventually turn into a large melee and police responding to break up the altercation.
The footage shows a shirtless White man charge and shove the Harriott’s employee, who flung his hat into the air. The shirtless man then threw several punches at him, and a group of several other White people knocked the worker to the ground and started hitting him, the footage shows.
At one point, a young White male wearing a life jacket came over to the scene and was struck by one of the shirtless White men, the video shows.
The fight escalated further, with other groups of people entering the fray, and a person aboard the boat jumped into the water and swam toward the fight, the video shows.
After a short break in the action, the Harriott II pulls in to the dock and a second round of fights began, the footage shows.
As the fighting continued, a Black man could be seen hitting two other people with a folding chair before he was detained by police, the footage shows. Another person could be seen going from the dock into the water, according to the video.
