Nearly two months after the brawl, Dameion Pickett is telling his side of the story.
Today, Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts sat down with Dameion Pickett, the dock worker who was at the center of the Montgomery Brawl, to share more about hot the viral incident started.
“I was just expecting another peaceful, nice cruise.”
Pickett, who is the lead deckhand of the Harriot II, reflected on what led up to the altercation and told “GMA” co-anchor Robin Roberts that he was just “just doing my job” and was “just in shock” when he was violently attacked.
“I didn’t expect this to happen at work today,” Pickett said. “I was just expecting another peaceful, nice cruise.”
According to Pickett, as the Harriott II was ending a dinner cruise and getting ready to dock, a private pontoon boat was illegally parked in its place, preventing the riverboat from docking safely.
“We could have docked, but we would end up hitting a couple of those boats and be responsible for it,” Pickett said.
According to Pickett and witnesses aboard the Harriett II who spoke with ABC News crew members made several attempts to ask the owner of the pontoon boat to move it, but their calls were ignored.
“Everybody was yelling, “Could y’all move y’all boat?” Pickett said.
It was then that Pickett said he got off the riverboat “by the captain’s orders” and went to move the pontoon boat himself.
“Really just moved it about one, two, four– four steps to the right, that’s it,” he said.
“I was, like, ‘I’m just doing my job … After we dock, we don’t mind y’all staying there but not at this time while we’re trying to dock,’” he added.
Shortly after Pickett moved the boat, videos show that he was confronted and punched by a man and soon after, others attacked Pickett and were later identified by police as a boat owner and his family.
Pickett said that after he was assaulted, he had to defend himself.
Check out the ABC News exclusive video below: