Harriott II Captain says Montgomery brawl was racially motivated

Source: Julie Bennett / Getty

The plot to the Montgomery brawl AKA “The Montgomery Sweet Tea Party” is about as thick as meemaw’s grits at this point.

Yesterday, BOSSIP reported that Richard Roberts had been arrested and charged with third-degree assault for punching a 16-year-old boy in the chest during the fight. His mugshot was the first to be publicly released by the Montgomery Police Department.

Today, according to a report by The Daily Beast, several of the men involved allegedly caused trouble previously for the captain of the Harriott II and he believes that the attack was racially motivated. Captain Jim Kittrell, a white man, spoke to TDB and didn’t bite his tongue about the “a**holes” who resorted to violence against his colleague and co-captain, not security guard, Damien Pickett.

“The white guys that attacked my deckhand—and he was a senior deckhand first mate—I can’t think of any other reason they attacked him other than it being racially motivated,” Kittrell said. “All he did was move their boat up three feet. It makes no sense to have six people try to beat the snot out of you just because you moved their boat up a few feet. In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated.”

We couldn’t possibly agree more. Kittrell also noted that he immediately recognized the men attacking Pickett as a group of boaters who regularly travel from Selma to Montgomery each year. He said that the group had been a problem before when they stole a golf cart and abandoned it in a local hotel lobby but they had never caused serious issues like they did last weekend.

According to WSFA, two more suspects, 23-year-old Allen Todd and 25-year-old Zachary Shipman, turned themselves in to the police Wednesday and were subsequently charged with one count each of misdemeanor third-degree assault.

We will continue to update you on the happenings surrounding this case as more information becomes available.