1 more person charged in Alabama riverboat brawl; co-captain says he 'held on for dear life'

Police in Montgomery, Alabama, say another person has been charged in an Aug. 5 brawl on the city's riverfront during which the co-captain of a cruise ship said he "held on for dear life" as he was pummeled by boaters.

The 42-year-old man who turned himself in Friday was charged with disorderly conduct and is in jail, said Capt. Jarrett Williams of the Montgomery Police Department in an email. Police had sought the man for questioning because they believed he swung a folding chair during the incident.

A total of 13 people were detained in the aftermath of the brawl, which happened in Montgomery's Riverfront Park. Three men and one woman were charged with third-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor offense in Alabama, as is disorderly conduct. One man initially charged with misdemeanor assault in the attack has been cleared of wrongdoing, police said Friday. All those charged are from out of town, Mayor Steven Reed said in a news conference Tuesday.

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Co-captain describes violent attack on Montgomery, Alabama, riverfront

Dameion Pickett, 43, described in a handwritten statement to authorities included in court documents how he was attacked after moving a pontoon boat a few feet so the Alabama River cruise ship, the Harriott II, could dock.

The ship's captain had asked a group on a pontoon boat "at least five or six times" to move from the riverboat’s designated docking space, but they responded by “giving us the finger and packing up to leave," Pickett said in the statement. Pickett, the boat's co-captain, and another member of the crew went ashore and moved the pontoon boat “three steps to the right,” he said.

After that, two people encountered him, threatening to beat him for touching the boat. The men argued that it was a public dock space, but Pickett said he told them it was the city’s designated space for the riverboat and he was “just doing my job.”

Riverfront brawl:3 men charged with assault after brawl at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Alabama

Then, Pickett said he was punched in the face and hit from behind. “I went to the ground. I think I bit one of them. All I can hear Imma kill you” and beat you, he said. Pickett said he couldn’t tell “how long it lasted” and “grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life."

A second round of fights happened after the riverboat docked and several crew members approached the pontoon boat.

Police: Montgomery, Alabama, brawl not a hate crime

Videos of the incident – involving several white boaters, attacking Pickett, who is Black, and a teen deckhand, who is white and was punched – went viral and led to international news coverage. The deckhand’s mother heard a racial slur before Pickett was hit, she wrote in a statement.

Montgomery police said they consulted with the FBI and determined the incident did not qualify as a hate crime. Reed, the city’s first Black mayor, said he will trust the investigative process, but he said his “perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor.”

“From what we’ve seen from the history of our city – a place tied to both the pain and the progress of this nation – it seems to meet the moral definition of a crime fueled by hate, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked,” Reed said. “It is a threat to the durability of our democracy, and we are grateful to our law enforcement professionals, partner organizations and the greater community for helping us ensure justice will prevail.”

Contributing: Francisco Guzman and Alex Gladden, The USA TODAY Network, The Associated Press

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider &mikegsnider.

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