A misdemeanor charge of assault has been filed against the co-captain of the Harriott II, but the charge doesn’t come from law enforcement.
Instead, one of the white men charged in the brawl, Zachery Shipman, pressed the charges, accusing the Black co-captain Dameion Pickett of hitting him first.
“I was not trying to fight,” Shipman wrote in a statement.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed and Police Chief Darryl Albert emphasized the charges don’t come from the Montgomery law enforcement.
”Neither the City nor the Montgomery Police Department filed these charges,” Reed and Albert said in a statement Thursday. “The Montgomery Police Department’s investigation only lists Mr. Pickett as a victim.”
Pickett repeatedly asked a group of men to move their boat, and then attempted to move it when they refused. The verbal dispute then escalated when the group of men began physically attacking Pickett.
Pickett will go to court on Nov. 21 for a hearing on the charge.
