A woman at the Alabama riverfront brawl said she heard a white attacker say “F**k that n*****” before starting a fight with the black sailor who was at the center of the shocking incident.
Witness Crystal Warren told police she watched the entire interaction and revealed she heard one of the white attackers threaten to get a gun, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ.
Warren, a riverboat employee, said both the racial slur and the threat were shouted by a man who had seen deckhand Damien Pickett moving the boats blocking the dock.
The woman also said she noticed Pickett asking the men to move their boat, which provoked middle fingers and swearing responses from the white men.
In addition, Warren said her son Daniel was seen in one of the videos trying to drag the attackers away and suffered bruised ribs after being punched in the chest.
The man accused of hitting 16-year-old Daniel, Richard Roberts, 48, has been arrested and charged with assault. Police say the investigation is still ongoing.
A woman at the Alabama riverfront brawl said she heard a white attacker say “F**k that n*****” to the black sailor at the center of the shocking incident
The man accused of hitting 16-year-old Daniel, Richard Roberts (pictured), has been arrested and charged with assault. Police say the investigation is still ongoing
In the documents, Warren reportedly told officers that the unidentified perpetrator who used the racial slur dropped the N-word after the deckhand moved smaller boats.
Pickett was forced to move several of the watercraft parked at the marina to an area designated for riverboat docking.
In all, Warren said she had to wait 17 minutes on the riverboat before another commercial watercraft came and took her 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 brawl threatened to run away and get a gun as the incident progressed.
Video of the incident shows a man punching Daniel in the chest as he tries to break up the group of men who are attacking Pickett while others look on.
Daniel was eventually taken to the hospital for his injuries.
Roberts is one of three people charged with assault in the incident; Allen Todd (23) and Zachary Shipman (25) were also charged.
It’s currently unclear who allegedly used the N-word and threatened to get a gun.
The shocking brawl was caught on video from multiple angles and posted on social media
Police Chief Darryl Albert said Tuesday that 13 people were arrested at the scene
The fight began after Damien Pickett, the black deckhand, moved the boats that were parked in the spot on the dock specially reserved for river cruising
In a new interview with The Daily Beast, river cruise captain Jim Kittrell said the whites must have attacked Pickett because of his race.
“The white people who attacked my deckhand – and he was a senior deckhand – I can’t think of any other reason why they attacked him other than that he was racially motivated,” Kittrell said.
“All he did was move their boat a meter higher. “There’s no point in six people trying to beat you out just because you moved your boat up a few feet,” he said.
“In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated,” Kittrell explained, adding that the rest of the fight “wasn’t black and white.”
The captain added that his crew would have stood up for Pickett against anyone who is reportedly in their 40s and is diabetic with high blood pressure.
Kittrell – and police – say it all started when a private boat owner and his family took over the designated dock for the Harriott, a tourist boat that carries passengers up and down the Alabama River.
Police Chief Darryl Albert said Tuesday that 13 people were arrested at the scene.
Jim Kittrell, the captain of the Harriott II, has claimed 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 were charged in that incident, only Roberts was taken into custody.
Todd and Shipman were ordered to surrender.
Police have also asked to speak to Reggie Gray, the black man who was seen throwing a folding chair. He wasn’t charged.
Video of the brawl showed the moment a black man hit a white boater with a chair during the chaotic and now infamous brawl.
The brawl at Riverfront Park in Montgomery went viral, with images from different angles of Saturday’s violent altercation shared on social media.
The incident also sparked memes and hilarious videos that roiled social media over the weekend with mockups and other jokes.
One of the most watched was a hilarious take on hand-to-hand combat in the style of comic book combat, where the main actors were satirized as characters.
While some downplayed the obvious racial differences in the skirmish, others opted to recreate the brawl – with one group visiting the site itself to catch a glimpse of the chair used in the brawl.