riverboat captain speaks out

‘I Can’t Think of Any Other Reason’: Captain of Riverboat Connected to Alabama Brawl Says Attack on Black Worker Was Racially Motivated

Racism lies at the core of the melee at an Alabama dock that gained widespread attention over the weekend, according to the captain of the Riverfront Park boat connected to the chaos.

The vessel’s captain, Capt. Jim Kittrell says the confrontation, which unfolded between his crew, consisting of Black members, and a group of reportedly intoxicated white boaters, was fueled by racial tensions.

The captain’s statement comes as the local authorities and FBI have ruled out hate crimes in the case.

“This whole thing is just because these guys were being a- -holes,” Kittrell told The Daily Beast. “I was nice as a peach when I was talking to them at first: ‘Please, help me out here, fellas. Move the boat up a little bit.’”

On Saturday evening, Kittrell discovered a pontoon boat occupying the designated area reserved for the Harriott II, a cruise vessel that offers dinner, dancing, and live entertainment, at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park.

Using his public address system, he politely asked the pontoon boat’s owners to relocate. However, his request was met with indifference, as the pontoon boat occupants ignored him.

Kittrell’s friend brought a smaller vessel to help clear the path for the larger Harriott II, carrying 227 passengers. The plan was to have a senior deckhand, Damien Pickett, go ashore and assist in maneuvering the Harriott II into position, requiring just a slight adjustment of a few feet.

Despite these efforts, the people on the pontoon boat continued to disregard Kittrell’s requests, forcing him to eventually call 911 for assistance.

“They started shooting birds at us, so I called the police,” Kittrell said.

When Pickett got to the dock, he carefully pushed the pontoon boat forward by a few feet so that Harriott II could remove its passengers.

Bystander video showed Pickett, who is Black, trying to reason with the pontoon boaters, who were white. Suddenly, a young white man rushed Pickett and punched him in the face. Other white men and women from the pontoon boat quickly jumped in, assaulting both Pickett and the 16-year-old boy who had taken Pickett ashore, police said Tuesday.

Other reports list Pickett’s position as co-captain of the vessel.

One of Pickett’a colleagues, now dubbed “Black Aquaman” online, swam over to provide assistance. Several others debarked and ran to Pickett’s aid, turning on the white boaters in an all-out brawl across the dock.

Three of Pickett’s alleged attackers — Richard Roberts, 48, Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25 — now have warrants out for their arrest for third-degree assault, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert said Tuesday.

“I can’t think of any other reason they attacked him other than it being racially motivated,” Kittrell said. “All he did was move their boat up three feet. It makes no sense to have six people try to beat the snot out of you just because you moved their boat up a few feet. In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated.”

Based on the latest data from the Department of Justice regarding hate crimes, the majority of reported offenses are directed toward individuals due to their race, ethnicity, or ancestral background.

In an unprompted call with local radio station News Talk 93.1 FM, Kittrell said the response to the attack was not a “black and white thing.”

“I had every single white crew member male on the boat was on the dock. This was our crew upset about these idiots,” he said, adding that he was familiar with the group of boaters.

“They’re from Selma. And, we’ve had trouble with them in the past, but just like jokey things. Like, a couple of years ago, this same group was here,” Kittrell said. “We came back from a cruise and our golf cart was missing. … We finally found it in the Hampton Inn lobby. We looked at the Hampton Inn video. Found out who did it and we had them come down. We were going to press charges then, but the police talked us out of it.”

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'Just in shock': Dock worker assaulted in Montgomery brawl speaks out in 'GMA' exclusive

Dameion Pickett spoke out in an interview with "GMA" co-anchor Robin Roberts.

Nearly two months after a brawl at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Alabama , went viral, Dameion Pickett, a dock worker who was at the center of the melee after he was assaulted by a group of boaters, spoke out about the incident in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America."

Pickett, who is the lead deckhand of the Harriot II, reflected on what led up to the altercation and told "GMA" co-anchor Robin Roberts that he was just "just doing my job" and was "just in shock" when he was violently attacked.

"I didn't expect this to happen at work today," Pickett said. "I was just expecting another peaceful, nice cruise."

Arrest warrants issued after boaters attack dock employee at Montgomery riverbank

According to Pickett, as the Harriott II was ending a dinner cruise and getting ready to dock, a private pontoon boat was illegally parked in its place, preventing the riverboat from docking safely.

"We could have docked, but we would end up hitting a couple of those boats and be responsible for it," Pickett said.

According to Pickett and witnesses aboard the Harriett II who spoke with ABC News, crew members made several attempts to ask the owner of the pontoon boat to move it, but their calls were ignored.

"Everybody was yelling, "Could y'all move y'all boat?" Pickett said.

It was then that Pickett said he got off the riverboat "by the captain's orders" and went to move the pontoon boat himself.

"Really just moved it about one, two, four-- four steps to the right, that's it," he said.

"I was, like, 'I'm just doing my job … After we dock, we don't mind y'all staying there but not at this time while we're trying to dock,'" he added.

Moments after Pickett moved the boat, videos show that he was confronted and punched by a man and soon after, others attacked Pickett and were later identified by police as a boat owner and his family.

Pickett said that after he was assaulted, he had to defend himself.

"This man just put his hand on me. I was, like … it's my job, but I'm still defending myself at the same time. So when he touched me, I was, like, 'It's on,'" Pickett said.

According to videos captured by bystanders and obtained by ABC News, the incident led to a massive brawl that started between the individuals who attacked Pickett, all of whom were white, prompting several Black eyewitnesses to join a fight in an apparent attempt to defend Pickett, including a viral video of a teenager later identified as Aaren Hamilton-Rudolph swimming to the dock to defend him.

Hamilton-Rudolph, a 16-year-old who was only on his second week on the job, reflected on what made him swim to Pickett's defense in an interview with "GMA."

"Everybody was just recording. No one helped," Hamilton-Rudolph said. "So I couldn't just watch and sit around and just let him get beat on while everybody else is just recording and watching."

Roshein "RahRah" Carlton, Pickett's coworker and friend, also rushed to his defense.

"It's our duty as-- as our coworker, as a team, to go and aid and assist him," Carlton told "GMA."

Pickett said that "some nasty words" were directed at him when he got attacked, while Carlton claimed that he heard "a lot of racial slurs" being used during the incident.

The incident was investigated by the Montgomery Police Department, leading to misdemeanor assault charges against four white individuals, all of whom are now out on bond and set to appear in court for a hearing this week.

Montgomery Police Department Chief Darryl Albert identified Pickett and an unnamed 16-year-old white male who was allegedly struck by the owners and operators of the private boat as victims in this case during a press conference on Aug. 7.

The incident led to charges against five individuals.

Alabama riverfront melee: 5th suspect turns himself in, police say

Richard Roberts was charged with two counts of assault in the third degree, court records show. Meanwhile, Allen Todd, Zachary Shipman and Mary Todd were all charged with assault in the third degree. All have pleaded not guilty .

ABC News has attempted to reach out to the suspects and their attorneys, but requests for comment were not returned.

A fifth arrest was made days later when Reggie Ray, a Black man who was seen attacking someone with a beach chair in a viral video, was charged with disorderly conduct. He also pleaded not guilty.

Ray's attorney, Lee Merritt, told ABC News that his client had a "limited role" in the brawl and was "involuntarily roped into the disorderly conduct initiated by a violent white mob."

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."

A spokesperson for the Montgomery Police Department told ABC News on Friday that there are no additional updates to share regarding the investigation.

Pickett told Roberts that all he wanted to do was make sure that the Harriott II, which was carrying more than 200 passengers at the time, was able to dock safely.

"I had a responsibility," he said. "I was still trying to get that boat in while the fight was still going on. I'm still telling the captain, 'We gotta get these folks here safely to this dock.'"

Asked how he was doing after the incident, Pickett said, "I'm just a little-- a little sore, little bumps and bruises here and there. But I'm here by the grace of God."

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Black riverfront worker said he ‘hung on for dear life’ during Montgomery attack

In his written deposition to Montgomery police, filed hours after he was attacked at the city’s riverfront last weekend, dock worker Dameion Pickett said he “hung on for dear life” as he was pummeled by a group of white boaters who disregarded his requests to move their boat so a dinner cruise vessel could dock.

NBC News obtained the handwritten account Pickett filed with law enforcement after the Aug. 5 melee.

Pickett, who has yet to speak publicly about the incident and did not respond to a request for comment, detailed the moments leading up to the fracas, which was captured on video. In his statement, he recounts the battle between white disruptive boaters and the cadre of Black people who came to his aid.

Mary Todd, one woman who jumped into the melee, was taken into custody Thursday by the Montgomery Police Department and charged with third-degree assault. On Wednesday night, two of the three men initially charged in the altercation — Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25 — turned themselves in to face third-degree assault charges. Richard Roberts, 48, was already in custody. They did not answer requests for comment about Pickett’s account of events. 

Pickett wrote that crew members asked the occupants of the pontoon boat, through an intercom, to move it “five or six times.” When Pickett left the cruise vessel, Harriott II, to confront the passengers of the smaller boat, he heard passengers shouting to the rowdy boaters to “move your boat. You’re in the way.”

The men on the pontoon responded by “giving us the finger” for about three minutes, Pickett wrote. 

Eventually, he and a dockhand untied the pontoon boat and moved it “three steps to the right” and tied it back to a post so the Harriott II could dock.

“By that time, two people ran up behind me,” Pickett wrote. One of the men, in a red hat, yelled to Pickett, “Don’t touch that boat motherf— or we will beat your ass.”

“I told them, ‘No, you won’t,’” he wrote. Pickett said they were unaware that he had given the captain the go-ahead to dock the Harriott II. The men continued to threaten Pickett, he said, and he told them: “Do what you’ve got to do, I’m just doing my job.”

One white man called another white man over to the scene. “They both were very drunk,” Pickett wrote. Another man came over to “try to calm them down” and then the boat’s owner came over. Pickett explained that the signs denoting where to park had been taken down by someone, so he had to tell them where to move the boat to make room for the Harriott II. 

The boat’s owner, wearing a gray shirt and red shorts with a sun visor, “started getting loud … He got into my face. ‘This belongs to the f— public.’ I told him this was a city dock.”

Soon, the melee began. “By that time,” Pickett wrote, “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.”

He said the attackers littered him with threats as they ganged up on him. “I’m gonna kill you, motherf—--. Beat your ass, motherf—--.” 

“I can’t tell you how long it lasted,” Pickett wrote. “I grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life.”

Eventually, Pickett said he looked up and help had arrived. “Two people were pulling them off me.” He described the assistance as coming from a tall Black man and a security guard. After struggling to his feet, Pickett said he looked up and “one of my co-workers had jumped into the water and was pushing people and fighting.”

While being held by someone, Pickett asked to be released so he could dock the boat. He gave the necessary orders to the captain to park the vessel.

 Meanwhile, “my nose was running … and I could hear passengers and co-workers arguing with the people who attacked me.”

The Harriott II docked and when the ramp came down for passengers to disembark, Pickett’s nephew “ran off the boat and went after them. I was screaming for him to come back.”

The nephew did not come back and the encounter escalated. 

“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.”

The back of the cruise vessel had not been tied to the dock. Pickett, despite the chaos around him, helped passengers off the boat with the aid of police. He apologized to them “for the inconvenience. They all said I did nothing wrong,” he wrote. “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.”

At some point, Pickett said he was led to a medic, “where I sat for 25 or 30 minutes. My head was hurting. I felt a knot in the back of my head and the front.”

 With coaxing, he sought treatment in the emergency room, where he was shown to have bruised ribs and bumps on his head, but no broken bones.

Curtis Bunn is a reporter for NBC BLK.

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Alabama riverboat captain reveals past ‘trouble’ with pontoon boat owners after brawl

The captain said they were previously going to press charges against the pontoon boat owners for a separate incident years ago, article bookmarked.

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The captain of the Harriott II riverboat revealed that he has had “trouble” in the past with the group who were arrested and charged with assault for their actions in the Montgomery waterfront brawl.

A fight broke out over the weekend along the dock after a deckhand asked the owners of a pontoon boat to move it a few feet, so that the Harriott II—which was carrying 227 passengers—could safely dock. The pontoon boat was partially blocking the riverboat’s designated space, the Montgomery Police chief previously said.

The exchange, which was captured on video, quickly got out of hand when one of the men on the pontoon boat allegedly started getting physical with the deckhand. Three men and one woman have so far been arrested in connection with the incident: Richard Roberts, 48, Allen Todd, 23, Zachary Shipman, 25, and Mary Todd, 21.

Capt Jim Kittrell told Alabama’s 93.1 radio station that this wasn’t the first time he had encountered the group.

“This is the same group that comes every year. They’re from Selma. And, we’ve had trouble with them in the past, but just like jokey things,” he stated.

He went into further detail about the group, citing one example from a few years ago while talking on CNN on Thursday. When the group came to Montgomery, the captain recalled, after a cruise, the riverboat crew tried to retrive “our golf cart that we used to get people up the hills that are handicapped or elderly.” But it was nowhere to be found.

Mr Kittrell said he received a call from the Embassy Suites Hotel, saying the golf cart is in the hotel lobby. After being shown video footage of the cart entering the lobby, he said they “find out who it is,” and he called his boss, who “wanted me to press charges” because the property belonged to the city.

However, police talked him out of it. Mr Kittrell recounted the police telling him at the time that it was “juust a little prank. Just let it slide.” So they did.

But this time, the police didn’t let it slide. Mr Roberts had already been in custody with the Selma Police Department, while Mr Todd and Mr Shipman turned themselves in on Wednesday evening. Mary Todd handed herself in on Thursday and has been charged with assault in the third degree.

However, they are still trying to get in touch with Reggie Gray, whom the police chief has described as “wielding that folding chair” in videos, with footage showing him allegedly hitting multiple people over the head.

The police chief announced they were looking for him on Tuesday; on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Montgomery Police told The Independent that investigators will “certainly” find Mr Gray.

On Wednesday, Mr Kittrell said he believed the attack was driven by race .

“The white guys that attacked my deckhand—and he was a senior deckhand first mate—I can’t think of any other reason they attacked him other than it being racially motivated,” he said. However, the captain said, after the initial attack on the deckhand, the rest of the brawl did not fall along racial lines.

On CNN on Thursday, Mr Kittrell expanded on that claim, saying, “I saw it like everybody else saw it. It looks like White people attacking a Black man. But, he added, “I don’t know the hearts of those men...Now, I do know the hearts of my crew. And my crew was frustrated because they couldn’t get to the dock” and protect the deckhand, Damien Pickett.

The captain said he took Mr Pickett to the hospital after the attack, and although “he’s still having some headaches and stuff,” he said the deckhand is “doing well.”

Police said they did not find enough evidence to support hate crime charges.

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