Riverboat brawl in Alabama: White assailant yelled ‘f**k that n*****’ before fighting black sailor and threatening to get gun, witness statements
A woman at the riverside brawl in Alabama says she heard a white assailant say “f**k that n*****” before starting a brawl with the black sailor at the center of the shocking incident.
Witness Crystal Warren told police she saw the whole interaction and has revealed she heard one of the white aggressors threaten to go get a gun, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ.
Warren, a riverboat employee, said the racial slur and threat were both shouted by a man who saw deckhand Damien Pickett move the boats blocking the dock.
The woman also said she noticed Pickett asking the men to move their boat, prompting middle fingers and cursing responses from the white men.
In addition, Warren said her son Daniel was seen in one of the videos trying to pull off the attackers and suffered bruised ribs after being punched in the chest.
The man accused of beating 16-year-old Daniel, Richard Roberts, 48, has been arrested and charged with assault and police say the investigation is ongoing.
A woman at the riverside brawl in Alabama says she heard a white assailant say “F**k that n*****” to the black sailor at the center of the shocking incident
The man accused of beating 16-year-old Daniel, Richard Roberts (pictured), has been arrested and charged with assault and police say investigations are ongoing
In the documents, Warren allegedly told officers that the unidentified perpetrator who used the racial slur dropped the n-word after the sailor moved smaller boats.
Pickett was forced to move some of the watercraft parked at the marina into an area designated for riverboat docking.
In all, Warren said she had to wait 17 minutes on the riverboat for another commercial watercraft to come and get them off the boat.
They were eventually dropped off at the dock where the brawl took place.
At one point, Warren said one of the white men involved in the fight threatened to run and retrieve a gun as the incident progressed.
Video of the incident shows a man beating Daniel in the chest as he tried to break up the group of men who attacked Pickett, while others watched.
Daniel was eventually taken to hospital for his injuries.
Roberts is one of three charged with assault in the incident; Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, have also been charged.
At this point, it’s unclear who allegedly used the n-word and threatened to get a gun.
The shocking brawl was captured on video from several angles and posted on social media
Police Chief Darryl Albert said on Tuesday that 13 people were detained at the scene
The fight started after Damien Pickett, the black sailor, moved boats parked in the spot on the dock reserved specifically for the river cruise
In a new interview with The everyday beastRiver cruise captain Jim Kittrell said the whites must have attacked Pickett because of his race.
“The white men who 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 was racially motivated,” Kittrell said.
“All he did was raise their boat a few feet. It’s no use having six people try to kick the snot out of your body just because you lifted their boat a few feet,” he said.
“In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated,” Kittrell explained, before adding that the rest of the fight “wasn’t black and white.”
The captain added that his crew would have stood up for Pickett, who is said to be over 40 and a diabetic with hypertension, against anyone.
Kittrell – and the police – say it all started when a private boat owner and his family took over the designated dock for the Harriott, a tourist craft that takes passengers up and down the Alabama River.
Police Chief Darryl Albert said on Tuesday that 13 people were detained at the scene.
Jim Kittrell, the captain of the Harriott II, has claimed that the attack on Montgomery’s Riverfront Park was racially motivated
Three suspects – all white males – have been charged with assault: Richard Roberts, 48, Alan Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25 (far left)
While three people have been charged in this incident, only Roberts has been taken into custody.
Todd and Shipman have been ordered to turn themselves in.
Police have also asked to speak to Reggie Gray, the black man who was seen throwing a folding chair. He has not been charged.
Video of the brawl showed the moment a black man hit a white skipper with a chair during the chaotic and now infamous fight.
The brawl at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park has gone viral, with social media sharing footage from different angles of Saturday’s violent altercation.
The incident also spawned memes and hilarious videos that set social media ablaze with recreations and other gags over the weekend.
One of the most watched was a hilarious take on the fight in the style of a comic fight, satirizing the protagonists as characters.
While some made light of the apparent racial divides in the skirmish, others opted to recreate the brawl – with one group visiting the site themselves to get a glimpse of the chair used in the battle.