3 Men Charged In Alabama Riverfront Brawl

All three men wanted in connection with a brawl that broke out along the waterfront in Montgomery, Ala., last weekend have turned themselves in and have been charged with assault, officials said, as the investigation into the racially charged melee continues.

The arrests came days after a group of white boaters attacked a Black captain of a riverboat cruise on Saturday. Warrants for three of the boaters were issued on Tuesday, and the Montgomery police had asked them during a news conference to turn themselves in.

Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, were in custody with the Montgomery police as of Wednesday, the police said, and each was charged with one count of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. A third man, Richard Roberts, 48, turned himself in on Tuesday and was charged with two counts of third-degree assault. The misdemeanor is penalized by a fine of up to $6,000 and up to one year in jail.

The three men, all of whom are white, have posted bail, officials said. An arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 1.

The Montgomery police said on Thursday that no more charges had been levied against the men, but more could come. While the fight appeared to be largely down racial lines, the police would not pursue hate crime charges, they said. They also will not pursue charges of inciting a riot.

The weekend’s violent scene was captured on video by several bystanders and drew a large social media response, including cartoons, TikTok videos, a song and re-enactments. Many of the videos, which offer multiple angles and vantage points of the incident, are now a part of the police investigation, said Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert.

The altercation began at the city’s popular Riverfront Park after a pontoon boat docked in a space designated for the Harriott II, a riverboat cruise that was returning from a trip up the Alabama River. For 45 minutes, the captain of the Harriott II instructed the pontoon boat via the public announcement system to move out of the way, but to no avail. Instead, the white boaters responded with “gestures, curse words and taunting,” Chief Albert said at a news conference on Tuesday.

At that point, Damien Pickett, a co-captain of the Harriott, was given a ride on a small boat to the dock so he could talk to the pontoon owners. When Mr. Pickett, who is Black, tried to move the pontoon, the owners of the boat confronted and attacked him. Members of the Harriott’s crew and bystanders came to Mr. Pickett’s defense, and a melee broke out. One man was seen on video wielding a folding chair to use against the boaters.

Mr. Picket and an unnamed 16-year-old male, who had taken Mr. Pickett to the dock, were injured the brawl.

The dock’s history has become a part of the broader conversation around the fight and its racial overtones: The altercation occurred at the same dock where enslaved Americans arrived by steamboat to be sold in the center of town.