Alabama police have announced that three men and one woman face assault charges after a video of a boat fight went viral.

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert said at a news conference that Richard Roberts, 48, had been charged with two counts of third-degree assault. Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, face one county of third-degree assault each. Mary Todd, 21, turned herself in on Thursday.

Police are also investigating Reggie Gray, 42, who was seen hitting a woman in the head with a folding chair.

Roberts hit a 16-year-old during the fight and turned himself in to police on Tuesday.

Thirteen people were taken into custody and questioned last weekend after the fight. Albert said, “I don’t think we’re near finished. We have a lot more work to do on this.”

Police are using “hundreds” of social media videos taken during the incident in their investigation. The fight began after a disagreement over a small boat that was blocking a large docking space for over an hour.

Damien Pickett, a co-captain of the Harriott II riverboat, who was trying to land in the docking space, confronted a group of men about their boat blocking his path. Pickett started arguing with the men before one of them punched him, starting a brawl that carried on across the dock.

Albert told reporters that Pickett, who was sent to the hospital for his injuries, was doing his job.

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The Harriott II’s Captain Jim Kittrell said he believed the attack against Pickett, who is black, was based on race. Kittrell said, “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.” He later explained that the following fight was “shipmates trying to help a shipmate.”

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Alex Nguyen

Article by Alex Nguyen

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