Love the shirt!❤️When dude threw his hat in the air that was the signal
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Alabama riverboat co-captain ‘held on for dear life’ in beatdown by boaters who’d caused ‘trouble’ before
ByYaron Steinbuch
August 11, 2023 11:39am
Updated
The Alabama riverboat co-captain attacked at the Montgomery Riverfront said he “held on for dear life” while being battered by the unruly boaters — who had also caused them “trouble” in previous run-ins.
Damien Pickett said his crew asked the occupants of a pontoon boat “at least five or six times” to move from the docking spot dedicated to the Harriott II riverboat, according to a handwritten deposition obtained by NBC News.
They responded by “giving us the finger” for several minutes, Pickett said.
After being ignored, Pickett and a dockhand then untied their boat and moved it “three steps to the right” and tied it again, he told authorities.
“By that time, two people ran up behind me,” he wrote, saying it included a man in a red hat who yelled, “Don’t touch that boat motherf–ker or we will beat your ass.”
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Alabama riverboat co-captain Damien Pickett said he “held on for dear life” during wild brawl.Facebook / Damien Pickett“I told them, ‘No you won’t,’” he said, saying he told them when they kept threatening him: “Do what you’ve got to do. I’m just doing my job.”
Pickett said one of the men called another other and “They both were very drunk.”
While another man tried to “calm them down,” the boat’s owner arrived and “started getting loud.
“He got into my face. ‘This belongs to the f–king public.’ I told him this was a city dock,” Pickett recalled in his statement.
Police said people using a pontoon boat pounced on Pickett after he tried to move their vessel.Joe Davenport via Storyful
A witness claims racial slurs were directed at the co-captain before the attackJoe Davenport via Storyful“By that time, a tall, older white guy came over and hit me in the face,” he said.
“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,” Pickett wrote.
Someone then “tackled” him, he wrote. “I went to the ground. I think I hit one of them.
“I think I bit one of them, and I can hear them saying, ‘I’m going to kill you motherf–ker,'” he wrote.
“I can’t tell you how long it lasted. I grabbed someone and held on for dear life.”
Viral video caught the fracas.TwitterAfter struggling to his feet, Pickett said he looked up and saw a colleague. “One of my co-workers had jumped in the water and was pushing people and fighting,” he wrote.
“The guy, the one who started it all was choking my sister,” he wrote, according to WSFA, which identified the suspect as Richard Roberts, 48.
Thirteen people were detained and interviewed following the brawl.Twitter“I hit him, grabbed her, and turned around, and [police] had a taser in my face. I told him I was attacked and said can I finish my job? Because the back of the boat wasn’t tied,” Pickett wrote.
When the situation was brought under control, he said he let off his passengers with the help of police. “I was apologizing to them for the inconvenience. Some of them gave me cards with their names and numbers,” he wrote.
Pickett said he was checked out at a hospital after the attack, where he found out that he had “no broken bones, just a few bruised ribs and a lump” on the head.
Zachary Shipman, 25.Montgomery Police DepartmentHis fellow captain, Jim Kittrell, told Alabama’s 93.1 radio station that this wasn’t the first time he had trouble with the same boaters.
“This is the same group that comes every year … we’ve had trouble with them in the past, but just like jokey things,” he told the station.
“Like, a couple of years ago, this same group was here. We came back from a cruise and our golf cart was missing. …we finally found it in the Hampton Inn lobby,” he said.
Allen Todd, 23.Montgomery Police Department“We were going to press charges then, but the police talked us out of it.”
Kittrell previously said he believed the attack was “racially motivated,” but police say hate charges are not justified.
So far four people have been arrested for the attack, with police saying more are expected.
Richard Roberts, 48.Montgomery PoliceRoberts, Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, were charged Tuesday with assault, while a fourth suspect, Mary Todd, 21, was arrested Thursday after she turned herself into Montgomery police.
Mary Todd, 21.Montgomery PDPolice did not disclose what role she played in the brawl, but video shows a woman with features similar to Todd’s hurling punches and shoving others during the chaos.
What do you think? Post a comment.
It was unclear whether Mary Todd and Allen Todd are related.
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Bantu=Biblical Israelites
August 9 at 3:05 AM ·https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#
When we had to fight Roman mobs like
#ReggieBernard Ray, known for wielding a folding chair in the notorious #AlabamaRiverfront brawl, has managed to avoid jail time. Court records reveals that Ray submitted a conditional guilty plea on Monday. As part of the agreement, he is obligated to fulfill 50 hours of community service and faces a 90-day suspended sentence.
yelrebmik_cole
All hell would’ve broken loose had they jailed that man. All and I mean ALL of us would’ve taken over the entire state by sundown. They DID NOT want that!!!!!
whysocomplicated3
What happened to the Caucasian men and women that started the brawl. To kick ass you must bring ass! We even swam to the fight !
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4h ·
August 5, 2023, is a day we will never forget.
The ancestors were summoned to Montgomery, Alabama, for what will forever be remembered as the “Fade In The Water.”
Today, we reflect on the bravery, courage, and pure strength of those who swam, jumped, and leaped with all the power of Harriet, Fredrick, and Malcolm.
May we forever remember that a chair is still a chair — even when no one is sitting there.
Happy Chairteenth!
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