HATEFUL

Witness to Viral Brawl Says White Men Yelled Racial Slurs Before Attack

The woman told police she heard men yelling “f**k that n***er” moments before they attacked a Black man.

A witness to the massive brawl that erupted Saturday on a boat deck in Montgomery, Alabama, reportedly told police she heard white men yelling “f**k that n***er” just moments before they began beating Damien Pickett, a Black man. The shocking detail emerged Wednesday in a court document obtained by CNN, which added that the men began yelling the slur as Pickett—a co-captain on the Harriett II ferry—moved their pontoon boat forward so his ferry could dock and unload its passengers. A trio of white men confronted Pickett and jumped him, combining to tackle and wail on him repeatedly until bystanders intervened. Cops announced Tuesday that the incident’s initial aggressors—identified as Richard Roberts, 48, Allen Todd, 23, and Zachery Shipman, 25—had warrants out for their arrest on third-degree assault charges. As of Wednesday afternoon, however, only Roberts had handed himself over to police, with Todd and Shipman still inexplicably at-large.