gun. three white men have been charged. i want to bring in montgomery police chief darrell albert. chief albert, thank you for joining us. we ll are captivated by what happened and the footage that has come out in this. some have gone to the extreme of caricaturizing it and creating memes. this is no laughing matter for those on the ground and who were watching this. are you hearing any what was i just described from other witnesses about racial slurs having been used? thank you, laura. and you know, this was a devastating incident to our community and to the nation. you know, we ve been conducting interviews and reviewing tons of footage submitted to us by the public, and we ve watched frame by frame to make sure that we get it right. and today we actually had that victim, that cocaptain, back in our office conducting additional interviews with him.
antawning. the cocaptain of the harriet went ashore and confronted the family. police say he was attacked by several members. 48-year-old richard roberts turned himself in charged with two counts of assault. several people jumped in to defend the black cocaptain. police say this was not a hate crime. based on the way the statutes read and the laws are crafted, we were unable to present any incitement to riot or racially biased charges. the montgomery police chief says the investigation continues and more charges are likely. they specifically want to speak to the black man who hit a white woman in the head with a folding chair. trace. coming up, update on major new york beach that shut down after a shark attack. and later, bath time for this
turn themselves in at some point today, probably soon. those are misdemeanor charges. all three of those men are between the ages of 23 and 48 years old and white. the racial component of this matter has been so closely examined. the other aspect of this is as of right now, montgomery police say they are not looking to file hate crime charges. that it doesn t meet the threshold right now for the fbi standard, but they are consulting with the fbi. we know there s a back story to all of this that apparently, the cocaptain, the man being punched, black, damian picket, tried for about 45 minutes over the pa system to reach the owners of the boat, who are white. he is unsuccessful. he was taken to the dock by a 16-year-old. the two victims with picket and the 16-year-old who is white and other members of the boat then disembarked, trying to defend picket and it turns into this brawl. as far as why they re not
the following as we have just heard from the sheriff on this in atlanta. high mike, jeff. reporter: police confirming with the captain of the riverboat has been saying from the get-go. they were trying to dock their boats, there was another pontoon boat in the designated spot. they asked those voters if they could go several times. they were basically ignored. the voters walked away. cocaptain of the riverboat tried to gently push that boat down. the voters come back, words are exchanged, and then this hap happens. get out the way! get out the way! [bleep] ganging up on and attacking the riverboat cocaptain, who is black. it appears after the needy initial fight that bystanders do try to stop the fight. the group of boaters continue to follow the crew member, the fight gets worse and worse. things reportedly calmed down, but once that riverboat doxxed,
the ship s designated spot. a group of men then attacked him. the police chief says that dock worker was just doing his job. here s abc s eva pilgrim. reporter: tonight, three people are now facing assault charges in that riverfront brawl in montgomery, alabama. we will not allow this type of behavior in our city. reporter: police say the three suspects have been identified as 48-year-old richard roberts, 23-year-old allan todd, and 25-year-old zachary shipman. those guys who parked there were told not to leave it there. reporter: authorities say the brawl started when this river boat cocaptain, identified by authorities as damien pickett, tried moving a pontoon boat in the designated spot for a cruise ship on its way in. the cocaptain was doing his job. he was simply trying to move the boat just enough to where the cruise ship could park safely, in its identified location, however, it quickly escalated into fisticufs.