Black deckhand attacked in Alabama riverfront brawl reveals vile threats
Damien Pickett said he tried to reason with the owners of the pontoon boat when he asked them to move
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A Black deckhand caught in the middle of the Alabama riverfront brawl revealed he was berated with threats by white boaters after he asked them to move their vessel so a dinner cruise could dock.
Damien Pickett detailed the frightening moments in a written deposition to Montgomery police that was obtained by NBC News.
The Harriott II’s senior deckhand said he had tried to reason with the pontoon boat occupants when he asked them to move, but was instead met with an attack that was captured on video.
Mr Pickett recalled being pummeled by the boaters who yelled, “I’m gonna kill you, motherf*****, beat your ass, motherf*****.”
“I can’t tell you how long it lasted,” he wrote in the deposition. “I grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life.”
The Harriott II, which was carrying 227 passengers, had been trying to dock on Saturday evening in Montgomery but a pontoon boat was blocking their spot.
After many calls over the PA system asking for the boat owners “five or six times” to move, Mr Pickett wrote, the men on the pontoon responded by “giving us the finger” for about three minutes.
Mr Pickett said he and another dockhand then 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,” Mr Pickett wrote. He added that one of the men, in a red hat, yelled to him, “Don’t touch that boat motherf***** or we will beat your ass.”
“I told them, ‘No, you won’t,’” he continued, adding that the men kept threatening him, so he told them: “Do what you’ve got to do, I’m just doing my job.”
Mr Pickett said the men appeared to be drunk and the boat’s owner, who was wearing a grey 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.”
The brawl broke out seconds later and Mr Pickett said that by that time, “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.”
Finally, help had arrived, Mr Pickett said as he recounted a tall Black man and a security guard coming to his aid.
“Two people were pulling them off me,” he said. But then before he knew it, “one of my co-workers had jumped into the water and was pushing people and fighting.”
As the Harriott II finally docked, Mr Pickett’s said his nephew “ran off the boat and went after them. I was screaming for him to come back.”
“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.”
Mr Pickett did just that as he helped passengers off the cruise boat and apologised 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.”
He was eventually transported to the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.
Five people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the brawl.
Reggie Gray, 42, turned himself in to Montgomery Police on Friday, three days after the police chief asked him to get in contact with authorities for further questioning. He was charged with disorderly conduct, police said.
Mary Todd, 21, was charged with assault in the third degree. She is currently behind bars in the Municipal Jail, the police added.
She joins three other men who were arrested following the wild riverfront fight. It’s unclear whether she and Allen Todd, a 23-year-old man who turned himself in on Wednesday, are related.
Zachary Shipman, 25, also turned himself in on Wednesday night after police asked him and Mr Todd to turn themselves in no later than Tuesday. Richard Roberts, 48, was also held in custody in Selma as of Tuesday.
Police have previously said that the three men who were arrested were members of the pontoon boat, which was blocking the Harriott II riverboat from docking in its designated space. It’s unclear if Ms Todd was also aboard the craft.
The captain of the Harriott II said he believes this interaction was “racially motivated,” but the massive brawl that transpired afterwards was not.
Capt Jim Kitrell also noted earlier this week that he has had “trouble” with the pontoon boat owners in the past, and had considered pressing charges against them years ago, yet was talked out of it.