Witnesses recount brawl at Montgomery riverfront

Witnesses say a large brawl that broke out on an Alabama riverfront Sunday was fueled by alcohol and adrenaline.

Bystanders said the incident began when a worker tried to clear the dock along the Alabama River so the Harriott II Riverboat could dock. A group of rowdy boaters refused to move their pontoon and attacked the dock worker when he untied the boat to make way for the Harriott II.

“They just didn’t think the rules applied to them. It was so avoidable. This never had to have happened,” said a witness, Leslie Mawhorter, 52, who was aboard the Harriott II, said in an interview. Video of the incident shows a group of what appear to be white men running to the boardwalk one by one and attacking the worker, who is Black.

The man who was initially attacked and the people involved in the fight have not been publicly named.