memphis riverboat fight

Arrest warrants issued after boaters attack dock employee at Montgomery riverbank

The brawl began over a dispute about a pontoon boat blocking a dock space.

Police in Montgomery, Alabama, issued four arrest warrants for suspects who attacked a Black dock worker in an altercation that led to brawl at a dock at Riverfront Park.

There are four active arrest warrants and "there’s a possibility more will follow after the review of additional video," a police spokesperson told ABC News. Police did not release the identities of the suspects.

Police said officers responded to a disturbance on the 200 block of Coosa Street around 7 p.m. Saturday. Officers found a large group of people engaged in a physical altercation and several were detained at the scene, according to police.

Videos of the brawl were captured by bystanders on cellphone video and posted on social media.

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According to the videos, the fight appeared to begin when a white man attacked a Black dock worker. Several other white individuals joined the altercation, which escalated to a brawl, attacking the Black man. Other videos captured by onlookers show that additional people joined the brawl in an apparent attempt to defend the dock worker.

According to a witness who captured video of the incident, the fight began over a reported dispute between a dock worker and the owners of a pontoon boat.

The witness, Christa Owen, told ABC News Monday that the individuals who attacked the dock worker did so after they were asked multiple times to move the pontoon boat because it was preventing the ferry from docking.

Owen added that the dock worker, who worked on her boat, got off the ferry and tried to move the pontoon boat after the owners "refused," preventing Owen’s group from docking from their dinner cruise.

"The black pontoon boat parked where the ferry parks. They wouldn't move when we were trying to pull in. It seems what these guys wanted trumped what a couple hundred people on a stranded ferry needed," Owen said, adding that prior to the brawl, the people on her boat repeatedly asked the people on the pontoon boat to move.

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She added, "They just looked at us, decided not to [move the pontoon boat], shrugged their shoulders and left. That's when a crewman disembarked onto a small boat to the dock to do it."

Owen said a couple of hundred people were "stranded on water" until the pontoon boat was moved.

Videos of the incident went viral on Sunday evening, prompting a response from the city’s mayor, who called for justice to be served.

"Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served," Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said in a statement posted on this Twitter account on Sunday.

Reed said the brawl was "an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred."

"As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community," the mayor added. "Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system."

ABC News’ Ben Stein and Kerem Inal contributed to this report.

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Breaking news, two punished for roles in wild alabama riverboat brawl sparked by attack on captain.

Two participants in the Alabama boat-dock brawl that went viral around the globe this past summer have been sentenced — one to jail and the other to anger-management classes.

Richard Roberts, 48 who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault rap for his role in the violent fracas, was ordered to serve 32 days behind bars along with 100 hours of community service. He will also have to pay court costs.

Mary Todd, 21, copped to a misdemeanor harassment charge and will enroll in anger-management courses as part of a plea deal. She will also be on the hook for court costs related to her case.

Three additional defendants — Allen Todd, 24, Zachary Shipman, 26, and Reggie Ray, 42 — have yet to resolve their cases.

Todd and Shipman were hit with third-degree assault charges, while Ray — who used a folding chair during the fight — faces a disorderly conduct rap.

The melee was sparked when a tourist riverboat carrying 227 passengers was unable to dock in August because a private pontoon boat was parked in its space, Montgomery cops said at the time.

The riverboat’s co-captain, Damien Pickett, asked over a public-address system for the occupants of the pontoon boat to move but was blown off with profanity and obscene gestures.

Pickett was then ferried to the dock in an attempt to speak to the pontoon boat’s passengers in person and was attacked after further words were exchanged.

Several of Pickett’s co-workers on the riverboat jumped to his defense as stunned onlookers watched the brawl deteriorate, with bystanders joining the fray.

A witness told police that the occupants of the pontoon boat used racial slurs during the assault against Pickett, who is black.

But prosecutors declined to hit the assailants with hate-crime raps, and Pickett himself told investigators that he didn’t believe race played a role in the incident.

A white teen dock worker who accompanied Pickett during his attempt to speak to the boat’s passengers was also beaten, officials noted.

“It’s important for us to understand that there was a young white dock worker or someone who worked on the boat who also tried to help and who was attacked as well,” Montgomery mayor Steven Reed said after the footage went viral.

The city’s police chief, who is black, said the case was thoroughly vetted.

“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,” Chief Darryl Albert said.

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Montgomery police, mayor give update on Riverfront brawl

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The Montgomery Police Department held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to give an update on the brawl that took place this past weekend at the Montgomery Riverfront.

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert said the incident began when private boat owners would not move their boat from the place where the Harriot docks. Attempts were made by the Captain of the Harriot for 45 minutes by the use of a PA system. However, the private boat owners instead yelled obscenities back at the Harriot and refused to move their boat.

As a result, the co-Captain of the Harriot boarded a smaller vessel and went to the dock in an attempt to get the boat owners to move their boat in order to allow the Harriot to come to port. At this time, the boat owners continued a verbal confrontation that then turned violent.

Chief Albert stated that on the day of the incident, 13 people were detained, questioned, and then released. Chief Albert also stated that four arrest warrants have been issued for the individuals involved.

Richard Roberts, 48, is charged with two counts of assault third degree and is in custody, according to police. Allen Todd, 23, is charged with assault third degree, and Zachary Shipman, 25, is being charged with assault third degree.

Chief Albert said the other two individuals were expected to turn themselves in within hours after the press conference.

Police are also asking to speak with Reggie Gray, who was the individual in the video that was assaulting others with a chair, and that more charges are expected to be coming.

The incident was captured on video from multiple angles.

“We want to make sure that the community is aware that we are fully engaged, and we are doing all of our due diligence to find out exactly what took place,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Monday.

MPD investigators are combing through multiple videos provided by the public, as well as the City of Montgomery’s own video surveillance systems. They’re asking anyone with more footage to submit it to [email protected] .

MPD said the incident started shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday on the dock along the Alabama River. Units responded to the 200 block of Coosa Street regarding a disturbance. On scene, officers encountered a large group of people engaged in a physical altercation.

One video shared with WSFA 12 News by a viewer, which runs approximately four minutes and 30 seconds, shows the moments leading up to the confrontation and the initial scuffle that quickly escalated.

The viewer, narrating what she was watching while aboard the riverboat, said an unnamed person in a white shirt, whom she said was part of the boat’s crew, got off the riverboat and went to move a pontoon boat that was blocking the city-owned Harriott II’s ability to dock.

As the crewmember appears to untie the pontoon boat’s rope, a man runs up to confront him. While it’s unknown exactly what was being said between the two, body language clearly indicated an escalation before others also ran to the boat to confront the crewmember.

Approximately three minutes after the confrontation began, an unidentified man ran up and shoved the crewmember, at which point the physical altercation between multiple people began.

Other videos showed people being punched, shoved, kicked and at least one person was knocked off the pier and into the water.

A WSFA 12 News crew responded to the scene and found multiple police units who had placed several people in handcuffs. MPD said the unidentified people were detained and that charges were pending.

Reed released a statement Sunday afternoon:

“I feel like it’s an unfortunate incident,” the mayor said Monday. “It’s something that shouldn’t have happened, and it’s something that we’re investigating right now.”

The mayor further noted that, “we’ll come through this together as a community, collectively, as we have other situations, as well.”

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Police Investigate Alabama Riverfront Brawl

The Montgomery police are seeking the arrest of several people in connection with a fight that broke out over the weekend when a group of white boaters attacked a Black boat captain.

By Remy Tumin and Chang Che

Update: All three men who were wanted in the brawl have turned themselves in . A woman also turned herself in to Montgomery police.

The police in Montgomery, Ala., are expected to charge at least three people in connection with a brawl that broke out over the weekend when a group of white boaters attacked a Black boat captain at the city’s popular Riverfront Park. The violent scene, which bystanders captured on video, has stoked memories of the city’s racist history.

The police issued arrest warrants for three men and more might follow, said Darryl J. Albert, the chief of the Montgomery Police Department, at a news conference on Tuesday. Richard Roberts, 48, faces two warrants for third-degree assault, a misdemeanor; Allen Todd, 23, faces one warrant for third-degree assault; and Zachery Shipman, 25, also faced a warrant for third-degree assault. All three men have been asked to turn themselves in; none of them are residents of Montgomery, the police said.

One of the men has already turned himself in to the police in Selma, Ala., Chief Albert said, and the other two are expected to turn themselves in later Tuesday afternoon.

A fourth man, Reggie Gray, 42, was wanted for questioning by the police after videos showed him wielding a folding chair during the incident, Chief Albert said.

While the police and federal authorities are still reviewing video evidence, the Montgomery police are not pursuing hate crime or riot charges at this time, he said.

“When the incident took place, the Police Department didn’t have the luxury of videos that we all have seen now,” Chief Albert said. “Now that we have more information, more charges are pending.”

Bystanders captured the incident on video from multiple angles that showed how a lively Saturday afternoon on the Alabama River turned into an all-out brawl. The fight, which seemed largely to be divided along racial lines, garnered a large social media response, including cartoons , TikTok videos , a song and even re-enactments , with many users reacting to a seeming reversal of fate along one of America’s most brutal historical markers of the slave trade. The fight occurred at the same dock where enslaved Africans arrived by steamboat to be sold in the center of town.

The altercation began when a group of white boaters docked a pontoon in an area designated for a larger riverboat on the Gun Island Chute portion of the Alabama River in Montgomery. The riverboat, known as the Harriott II, offers cruises with dining and live entertainment along a stretch of the river.

As the Harriott tried to re-dock after an outing with 227 passengers aboard, its captain attempted to contact the owners of the pontoon for 45 minutes via the public announcement service, instructing them to move their vessel, Chief Albert said.

They responded with “gestures, curse words and taunting,” he said.

After this, Dameion Pickett, a co-captain of the Harriott, took a ride on a small boat to the dock so he could talk to them, Chief Albert said. When Mr. Pickett, who is Black, tried to move the pontoon just enough to allow the Harriott to dock, the owners of the pontoon confronted him “in a very hostile manner” and attacked him, Chief Albert said.

“The co-captain was doing his job,” he said.

Several members of the Harriott’s crew “came to Mr. Pickett’s defense,” Chief Albert said, “engaging in what we all have seen since on social media.”

Videos showed one of the white men then punching Mr. Pickett, who was jumped on and beaten by the other white boaters; one of them appears to try to place Mr. Pickett in a headlock. Other videos show another Black man, who appears to be a staff member of the Harriott II, jump off the riverboat and swim to the dock to defend Mr. Pickett as other Black bystanders join them on the deck. Several videos show one Black bystander, whom the police identified as Mr. Gray, hitting a white man with a folding chair.

Chief Albert said that in addition to Mr. Pickett, an unnamed 16-year-old white male, who took Mr. Pickett to the dock, was also attacked by the owners and operators of the pontoon. Mr. Pickett received treatment for injuries on Saturday night, but Chief Albert said he did not know of anyone else seeking medical care.

Mayor Steven L. Reed, Montgomery’s newly elected first Black mayor, said at the news conference that the attack did not characterize the Montgomery community at large, especially since the attackers were not from the city.

“It’s important for us to address this as an isolated incident, one that was avoidable and one that was brought on by individuals who chose the wrong path of action,” Mr. Reed said at the news conference. “This is not indicative of our community at all.”

An earlier version of this article, relying on information provided by the Montgomery Police Department, misspelled the given names of two people. The boat co-captain is Dameion Pickett, not Damien; and a person charged is Zachery Shipman, not Zachary.

How we handle corrections

Remy Tumin is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics. More about Remy Tumin

Chang Che is the Asia technology correspondent for The Times. He previously worked for The China Project and as a freelance writer covering Chinese technology and society. More about Chang Che

WATCH: Massive Riverfront Brawl in Alabama Leads to Multiple Arrests

The fight in Montgomery, which reportedly broke out over dock space, ballooned to include men, women, and a guy wielding a folding chair.

AJ McDougall

Breaking News Reporter

Michael Barera/WikiCommons

A Saturday night melee along a river in Montgomery, Alabama that exploded after a group of white boaters reportedly challenged a Black riverboat worker has led to several arrests, according to authorities.

The Montgomery Police Department said that “several” people had been detained after the brawl broke out at Riverfront Park around 7 p.m. Police confirmed to WSFA on Sunday afternoon that there were four active warrants in the case, with more possibly to come as the department’s investigation continues.

Witnesses told the station and several other local outlets that the fight was sparked by a pontoon boat blocking a riverboat’s dock space. “That area is the regular spot reserved for the Harriott II Riverboat,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

In footage that circulated on social media in the aftermath of the tumult, a Black man can be seen standing on the dock, apparently attempting to unmoor the pontoon.

“Those guys who parked there were told not to leave it there and they left it there,” the woman filming, a guest on the riverboat cruise, can be heard saying. She identifies the man as a member of the cruise’s crew.

“So he’s just pushing it off,” the woman narrates. “That’s funny. Took matters into his own hands. I love it.” In the background of the video, other guests and crew members can be heard shouting in encouragement.

Several white men then approach the crew member, and an inaudible verbal confrontation begins, lasting several minutes.

As the men continue to argue, people on the boat can be heard yelling chants including, “Knock his ass out, Damien!” and “Get the fuck out the way!” The people aboard the riverboat then begin chanting the lyrics to “Move Bitch.”

Eventually, one of the men in the pontoon group shoves the crew member back. The crew member throws his hat away and the pair begin exchanging blows.

In another video, onlookers can be heard screaming, with one watching from the river yelling, “Y’all help that brother!” Several other people then rush in to join the fight, including a Black man who jumps into the water from a boat and swims to the dock.

The man in the water was identified by a family publicist on Sunday night only as a 16-year-old named Aaren. Calling him a “cherished young hero,” the publicist said in a statement posted to Facebook that Aaren “selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showing courage beyond his years.”

According to a third video of the incident, the fight appears to momentarily deescalate soon after Aaren reaches the dock, only for it to scale up again, becoming a full-on brawl as the riverboat docks and roughly a dozen other employees go ashore.

Within moments, men and women, both Black and white, can be seen kicking, punching, eye-gouging, and wrestling each other. A person is at one point thrown into the water, while elsewhere a man finds a folding chair and starts bashing people over the head with it. Security officers can be seen attempting to break various sections of the fight up.

Law enforcement officers who arrived on the scene soon after handcuffed several people, including the man with the folding chair. The detained suspects’ names have not been released, and charges against those involved in the fight were pending on Sunday, according to the Montgomery Police Department.

In a Sunday afternoon statement, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said, “ Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served. This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred.”

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3 charged with assault after boaters attack dock employee at Montgomery, Alabama riverbank

The alleged assault on a ferry co-captain led to a brawl at Riverfront Park.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Charges were filed against three white boaters who allegedly assaulted a Black ferry co-captain, sparking a racially charged melee at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saturday night that was captured on bystander videos that went viral.

Montgomery Police Department Chief Darryl Albert identified the victims in this case as co-captain of the Harriet II and dock employee Damien Pickett, a Black male. He also mentioned an unnamed 16-year-old white male juvenile who was allegedly struck by the owners and operators of the private boat that was blocking the riverboat from docking.

Richard Roberts, a 48-year-old white male, is facing two outstanding warrants for assault in the third degree, Allan Todd, a 23-year-old white male is facing one warrant for assault in the third degree and Zachary Shipman, a 25-year-old white male, is facing one warrant for assault in the third degree.

It is unclear if the suspects have attained legal representation.

Albert also said that police are seeking further interviews with a man who was allegedly seen in bystander videos wielding a folding chair.

Asked if there's any evidence of a hate crime, Albert said that police "looked at every avenue" and left "no stone unturned," but "were unable to present any insight in a riot or racial racially biased charges at this time."

The charges came after police issued four arrest warrants related to the incident and told ABC News in a statement on Monday that additional arrests could come as police continue to review video evidence of the incident.

Police said officers responded to a disturbance on the 200 block of Coosa Street around 7 p.m. Saturday, where they found a large group of people engaged in a physical altercation and several were detained at the scene.

According to videos captured by bystanders and obtained by ABC News, the fight appeared to begin after a white man punched Pickett. Several other white individuals joined the altercation, which seemed to set off a brawl between those individuals, Pickett and bystanders. Other videos captured by onlookers show that bystanders joined the brawl in an apparent attempt to defend the co-captain, with one man seen swimming to the dock from a riverboat.

According to a witness who captured video of the incident, the assault and subsequent brawl came amid a reported dispute over a pontoon boat that was blocking a space of a riverboat.

The witness, Christa Owen, told ABC News Monday that she was on a dinner cruise on the riverboat with her 12-year-old daughter. She said that after the owners of the pontoon boat were asked multiple times to move the boat but they "refused," so the crew member got off the boat and tried to move the pontoon boat himself.

"The Black pontoon boat parked where the ferry parks. They wouldn't move when we were trying to pull in. It seems what these guys wanted trumped what a couple hundred people on a stranded ferry needed," Owen said, adding that prior to the brawl, the people on her boat repeatedly asked the people on the pontoon boat to move.

She added, "They just looked at us, decided not to [ move the pontoon boat ] , shrugged their shoulders and left. That's when a crewman disembarked onto a small boat to the dock to do it."

Owen said a couple of hundred people were "stranded on water" until the pontoon boat was moved.

ABC News' Ben Stein and Kerem Inal contributed to this report.

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Montgomery riverfront brawl captured on video, several detained by police

• Updated: Aug. 10, 2023, 1:30 p.m.
• | Published: Aug. 06, 2023, 12:06 a.m.
• Jeremy Gray | [email protected]

A brawl near the Montgomery Riverfront Park on Saturday evening was captured on video posted to social media by onlookers and ended with multiple people in police custody.

Montgomery police said they were called at about 7 p.m. to the 200 block of Coosa Street on a disturbance.

“At the scene, they located a large group of subjects engaged in a physical altercation. Several subjects have been detained and any charges are pending,” a police statement read.

#WATCH A brawl near Montgomery’s Riverfront Park has led to multiple arrests. @wsfa12news pic.twitter.com/PEbFynGhxb — Brady Talbert (@BradyTalbert) August 6, 2023

Police did not provide any additional information late Saturday night.

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See also: Many questions unanswered after fight caught on video

Multiple videos posted to social media suggest the brawl started when a pontoon boat stopped at the riverf ront, preventing a riverboat from docking there.

Witnesses said a riverboat worker was attacked by people onboard the pontoon boat. Efforts to confirm these accounts were not immediately successful.

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Nbc news channel, watch: video shows brawl erupt on alabama riverfront.

Police in Montgomery, Ala., have issued multiple arrest warrants following a brawl that erupted during an apparent dispute over an improperly docked boat. Aug. 7, 2023

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Montgomery riverfront brawl: Folding chair shows up in tourist photos, at voter drives

The white folding chair looks just like any other except for the signatures scrawled on it. The list of names belongs to those involved in the Montgomery riverfront brawl, an event that made it a symbol of so much more for people across the nation.

Queen E. Tate Jackson said she grabbed the chair during the brawl on Aug. 5 to keep anyone from getting hurt. Reggie Ray is accused of hitting a woman with the chair, and police have charged him with disorderly conduct. His hearing is Nov. 16.

The brawl started when Dameion Pickett, the co-captain of the Harriott II, asked the operators of a private boat that was docked in its space to move, getting only "obscene gestures" and "taunting" in response. Dozens of cellphone videos posted to social media were recorded by passengers aboard the Harriott II riverboat – which was waiting to dock with 227 people on board for more than 40 minutes – as well as people on the shore.

The video they captured shows several white assailants hitting and kicking Pickett. At least one Black riverboat passenger dove into the Alabama River and swam to shore to aid the worker. Once the Harriott II docked, the videos showed a mostly Black group disembarking and rushing toward the boaters.

Richard Roberts and Mary Todd of Selma both pleaded guilty of charges related to the brawl in Montgomery municipal court last week. Cases are pending for four others, including Zachery Shipman, Allen Todd, Pickett and Ray.

Jackson was helping with voter registration and saw the beginnings of the fight. She was there when Ray allegedly hit the woman with the chair, she said. “We got rid of it because it was a weapon," Jackson said, adding that she's grateful that there weren't any guns.

She took the chair and gave it to her husband, she said. Her husband then put it in their car.

Since then, the chair has become a symbol featured in memes all over the world. It's on T-shirts, tattoos and earrings.

Jackson said she's gotten many people who were involved in the brawl to sign the chair. They include people who work at the Harriott II and the teen who was given names like "Black Aquaman" and "Michael B Phelps" on social media after swimming across the river to help Pickett.

"In the aftermath of the brawl, a white folding chair – an unlikely weapon that one man was seen wielding over his head during the encounter – has emerged as a joking-but-not-really symbol of resistance against perceived racial aggression," Frank Rojas wrote for the New York Times.

Adia Winfrey, who is involved in activism throughout the state, agreed.

“I think what made the chair popular is that it is it became a symbol of unity, a symbol of liberation, something familiar that people could relate to ... that people are familiar with. The fact that it was used in a way that it was, it became a symbol of liberation for people," Winfrey said.

Jackson, who is a freelance photographer, now takes the chair with her when she helps with voter registrations and does activist work throughout the state. She poses with tourists, sharing a small part of that feeling of liberation with them. Authorities have not confirmed that the chair Jackson took is the one allegedly wielded by Ray, but that doesn't seem to matter for those who have found a greater meaning in what it represents.

Ronnie Clark described his meeting with Jackson on social media. Clark was visiting Montgomery and walking along the riverfront while wearing a shirt with the folding chair on it. Jackson pulled the chair out of the back of her van to show Clark.

"You never know who you'll run into!" Clark said in his post.

The fight has become synonymous with Montgomery, which Jackson said is not always a bad thing. It shows the unified spirit of the Black community here, she said.

“We’re ready to come together," Jackson said. "... We stick together."

Jackson said she has considered giving the chair to a museum.

Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser's public safety reporter. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @gladlyalex.