DA Quietly Charges Montgomery Riverboat Co-Captain With Third-Degree Assault in Dock Brawl Incident

The Black riverboat co-captain, who was at the center of a viral Montgomery dock brawl with white boaters, was quietly charged months after the August 5 attack, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Neither the Montgomery Police Department nor the district attorney announced the charges, despite previously doing so for the five other individuals also charged in connection to the incident.

Dameion Pickett, who was previously referred to in court documents as Damien Pickett, is the co-captain of riverboat Harriott II. According to local news, Pickett was charged with third-degree assault on October 26. He's scheduled to be arraigned on November 21.

Court documents further revealed that the complainant listed in the case against Pickett was Zachery “Chase” Shipman, who was on the pontoon boat that sparked the brawl and was later charged with third-degree assault.

Pickett was listed as a victim in the charges against the unruly pontoon boat passengers.

While Shipman, three other pontoon boat passengers, and a bystander's charges over the incident were announced by Montgomery authorities, police and prosecutors interestingly kept Pickett's charges under wraps, presumably due to viral outrage over the brazen attack.

Video of the incident spread like wildfire online. Pickett's Harriott II was attempting to dock and unload passengers, however, white pontoon boaters refused to move their craft that was blocking the riverboat's path.

As Pickett and one of the pontoon boaters exchanged words on the dock, another white passenger rushed over and punched him.

Within seconds Pickett and the man were fighting. Moments later, multiple other boaters joined the fight against the lone Black man, who at one point was knocked to the ground as multiple pontoon passengers struck him.

Passengers and crew on the riverboat watched in horror as they screamed for help. One of the Harriott II crew members even jumped in the water and swam to the dock to help Pickett.

Bystanders on land soon rushed to the dock as well, adding to the chaos.

Eyewitness Crystal Warren, who's the mother of a 16-year-old deckhand also involved in the altercation, claimed in a police report that the pontoon boaters hurled racial slurs at Pickett during the attack.

"You could here (sic) men yelling ‘f--- that n-----’ and the men came down to fight my son," Warren stated in her report, though she walked back her statement when she testified in October that she had not heard any slurs.