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A waterfront brawl in Montgomery, Alabama, went viral. What happened and why?

The riverfront worker who was attacked said he “held on for dear life” as a group of white boaters jumped him in a large brawl that broke out at the Montgomery Riverfront in Alabama on Aug. 5.

In a handwritten account he filed with law enforcement after the Aug. 5 melee and obtained by NBC News, Dameion Pickett recalled what happened the day when the men refused to move their boat so a dinner cruise riverboat could dock.

“A tall, older white guy came over and hit me in the face. I took my hat off and threw it in the air,” he wrote. “Somebody hit me from behind. I started choking the older guy in front of me so he couldn’t anymore, pushing him back at the same time.”

Pickett has not made a public statement regarding the incident and did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.

Videos that went viral on social media showed a group of white men attacking Pickett. The footage caused an outcry, with the Montgomery mayor addressing the altercation and police issuing arrest warrants.

Allen Todd, 23, and Zachery Shipman, 25, have been charged with one misdemeanor count of assault in the third degree, a spokesperson for the Montgomery Police Department said.

Another man, Richard Roberts, 48, faces two third-degree assault charges and turned himself in on Aug. 8.

A fourth suspect in the case, Mary Todd, 21, turned herself in on Aug. 10 and was charged with misdemeanor third-degree assault.

A fifth suspect, Reggie Ray, 42, turned himself in on Aug. 11 and was charged with disorderly conduct. Police had previously sought Ray after he was seen wielding a folding chair in the melee on social media videos.

So what exactly happened? Read on for a full explanation of this now-viral incident.

What happened at the Montgomery Riverfront

A large brawl broke out Saturday, Aug. 5, shortly before 7 p.m. at the Alabama capital after Pickett attempted to clear a dock along the river so that the Harriott II Riverboat could dock, witnesses told NBC News . The brawl was fueled by alcohol and adrenaline, witnesses also said.

When a group of rowdy boaters refused to move their pontoon at the Montgomery Riverfront, they attacked Pickett when he untied their boat to make way for the riverboat, witnesses said.

In video shared with NBC News , after a group of what appears to be white men ran along the dock to attack the worker, who is Black, more people joined in and appeared to defend Pickett. Other footage shared with NBC News shows people punching and shoving one another, with one person falling into the water as police struggled to contain the chaos.

The Riverfront is a popular destination with a park, stadium, amphitheater and riverboat.

What police say about the fight

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert, in a news conference on Aug. 8 , confirmed that a group of private white boaters had attacked a Black dockworker, identified as Pickett. Later, police would identify Pickett as the assistant boat captain of the riverboat.

He had been trying to move the private boaters' pontoon to make way for the riverboat.

As passengers aboard the riverboat — more than 200 — waited at least 30 minutes, Pickett tried to get the rowdy private boaters to move. Several members of the private pontoon group then attacked Pickett, Albert said.

Albert added that police arrived on the scene at 7:18 p.m. local time — about 18 minutes after the riverboat captain had called. He said 13 people were detained, questioned and then released.

What did the attacked dockworker say about the incident?

In a handwritten statement filed with police and obtained by NBC News, Pickett said he asked the group “five or six times” to move their boat.

When he and a dockhand were ignored and given the finger, he says, they untied the group’s pontoon boat, moved it “three steps to the right” and re-tied it to a post so the Harriott II could dock.

“By that time, two people ran up behind me,” Pickett wrote, adding that a man in a red hat yelled, “Don’t touch that boat motherf---er or we will beat your ass.”

He said the men continued to threaten him and then one of them called another man over.

“They both were very drunk,” Pickett wrote, adding that then the pontoon boat owner went over “started getting loud … He got into my face. ‘This belongs to the f---ing public.’ I told him this was a city dock.”

That’s when the brawl began. Pickett wrote, “A tall, older white guy came over and hit me in the face. I took my hat off and threw it in the air. Somebody hit me from behind. I started choking the older guy in front of me so he couldn’t anymore, pushing him back at the same time.”

Adding, “Then the guy in the red shorts came up and tackled me … I went to the ground. I think I hit one of them.”

Sharing more recollections from the fight, he said, “I can’t tell you how long it lasted. I grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life.”

Pickett was eventually helped by other people but noticed the brawl was getting out of hand, writing, “One of my co-workers had jumped into the water and was pushing people and fighting.”

He added that his nephew joined the melee and he had also seen his sister being choked during the fight.

As more chaos ensued, the riverboat had not been tied to the dock but Pickett helped the passengers off the boat. He wrote that he apologized “for the inconvenience. They all said I did nothing wrong.”

“Some of them were giving me cards with their names and numbers on it. Some said they had it all on film, so I pointed them out to MPD,” he added. After the altercation, he was treated at the emergency room where he was treated for bruised ribs and bumps on his head.

What witnesses say about the brawl

Witnesses told NBC News a similar version of events. Christa Owen said she was aboard the Harriott II with her husband and daughter when the brawl broke out.

“What was hard is we were all on the boat and witnessing our poor crewman being attacked by these guys, and we couldn’t do anything about it,” Owen said.

“It was really difficult to watch, and, like I said, we felt helpless, because we were forced to be spectators,” Owen added.

Owen was among those who recorded the altercations, explaining that it was “inexcusable behavior.”

Additionally, Leslie Mawhorter also on Harriott II, added: “They just didn’t think the rules applied to them. It was so avoidable. This never had to have happened. Everything just spiraled from there.”

“I knew something was going to go down, because their attitude was just, ‘You can’t tell us what to do.’ They were going to be confrontational regardless of who you were,” Mawhorter continued.

Have police made any arrests?

Four men and one woman are facing charges , according to police: Richard Roberts, 48; Reggie Ray, 42; Allen Todd, 23; and Zachery Shipman, 25, and Mary Todd, 21.

“There was no need for this event to take the path it did,” Albert told reporters earlier this week. “The people of Montgomery, we’re better than that. We’re a fun city, and we don’t want this type of activity to shed a dark eye on what this city’s all about.”

Was the fight racially motivated?

In the press conference on Aug. 8, Albert said investigators do not believe the incident was racially motivated.

He said that the local FBI and district attorney’s offices are involved in the ongoing investigation. 

“I don’t think you can judge any community by any one incident. I think it’s important for us to address this as an isolated incident, one that was avoidable,” Albert said. “One that was brought on by individuals who chose the wrong path of action.”

What the mayor of Montgomery said about the altercation

On Sunday, Aug. 6, Mayor Steven L. Reed released a statement saying that “justice will be served” after individuals attacked “a man who was doing his job.”

“Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served,” the statement posted on social media read. “This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community.”

“Those who choose violent actions will be held accountable by our criminal justice system,” the statement concluded.

Reed shared how he felt about the incident during a press conference on Aug. 7.

"I feel like it’s an unfortunate incident. Our statement that we put out the other day is that it’s something that shouldn’t have happened and it’s something that we’re investigating right now," Reed said. "We’ll continue to go through that process before we take any additional steps."

When asked if Reed thought the incident was racially charged, he said the brawl is still under investigation, and that authorities are "investigating all angles."

The investigation is ongoing.

EDITOR'S NOTE (Aug. 11, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. ET): Previous police statements listed the man attacked as Damien Pickett and one of the suspects as Zachary Shipman. On Aug. 11, officials corrected their names' spellings to Dameion Pickett and Zachery Shipman. This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling.

Liz Calvario is a Los Angeles-based reporter and editor for TODAY.com who covers entertainment, pop culture and trending news.

Anna Kaplan is a news and trending reporter for TODAY.com.

Sam Kubota is a senior digital editor and journalist for TODAY Digital based in Los Angeles. She joined NBC News in 2019.

Several people detained after fight breaks out at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park in Alabama

Update : Montgomery police say 4 active warrants out after brawl at Riverfront Park in Alabama

Several people were taken into custody Saturday night after a fight broke out at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park in Alabama, authorities said.

The Montgomery Police Department responded to a disturbance at the 200 block of Coosa Street in Montgomery, Alabama, at 7 p.m. after a large group of people were fighting. Several people were detained, police said.

A video of the incident, which appeared to be racially divided, was shared Sunday on social media. It’s been reported that it began because a pontoon boat was blocking dock space needed to park a riverboat. That area is the regular spot reserved for the Harriott II Riverboat.

Watch the video to see the massive boat deck brawl that led to several people being detained.

One short video, posted on social media by Josh Moon of the Alabama Political Reporter, shows several white people fighting a single Black man, who according to Jasmine Williams of WSFA is a dock worker.

The only audio heard is from witnesses yelling, but it appears to begin with an argument between the Black man and one of the white men. Another white man rushes and hits the Black man, who backs up and tosses his hat into the air. Then the fight begins in earnest, and several white people begin hitting the Black man.

During the video, one witness, apparently watching from the riverboat, screamed repeatedly, “Y’all help that brother!” to onlookers who were on shore. It appears some people from the shore did join in to defend him, and the video shows at least one Black man dive into the water from the riverboat.

“Get up there, young buck!” yelled another voice on the video.

By the time the swimmer climbed up onto the dock, about a minute into the video, most of the altercation appeared to be over in Moon's video.

A separate video posted by Lauryn Lauren shows scenes after that, as the Harriott II was preparing to dock. A group of people approached the pontoon boat, and more fighting broke out. At least one person fell into the water from the dock. Authorities were soon on the scene and police began taking people into custody .

Authorities have not released the names of the detained suspects. Charges against anyone involved in the fight are pending, MPD said.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel can be contacted at   [email protected]

Several People Detained After Boaters' Attack On Black Worker Leads To Brawl

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

Multiple people were taken into custody after a group of white boaters attacked a Black worker on the riverfront in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saturday, authorities say. Other bystanders joined in the man’s defense, leading to a brawl.

The fight seems to have started after the dock worker confronted a group of boaters who refused to move their docked pontoon so a riverboat could park, according to videos posted on social media.

The incident occurred late afternoon in downtown Montgomery, near a spot on the dock that is regularly reserved for the Harriott II Riverboat , Montgomery’s city-owned vessel that takes short cruises up and down the Alabama River, Alabama Political Reporter reported .

Mayor Steven L. Reed seemed to corroborate the story in a statement about the incident posted on Sunday.

“Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job,” Reed said. “Warrants have been signed and justice will be served.”

Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served. This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police… pic.twitter.com/5cywOwA6Uz — Mayor Steven L. Reed (@MayorofMgm) August 6, 2023

Montgomery police told local news station WSFA 12 News that charges are pending and the incident is under investigation as they comb through multiple videos provided by the public and city video surveillance.

Police told USA Today that there are four active warrants out as of Monday morning.

“There’s a possibility more will follow after the review of additional video,” the Montgomery Police Department told the outlet in a statement.

A woman on a riverboat can be heard describing the incident in one video , which has garnered more than 13 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A Black man in a white shirt, who some outlets identified as a dock worker, can be seen near a pontoon boat parked at the dock, trying to move it.

“He got off our ship to go over there to move that black pontoon boat on his own because those guys who parked there were told not to leave it there and they left it there, so he’s just pushing it off,” the woman says.

The worker is soon confronted by several white men, and they appear to have a heated discussion as people on the boat where the woman is recording the video chant the chorus of Ludacris’ 2002 hit “Move, Bitch.”

At the 3:27 mark in the video, one of the white men — who is shirtless and in gray shorts — charges at the Black worker. In response, the worker throws off his hat and prepares to fight as the white man punches him in the face. As the two fight, another white man — who is shirtless and in red shorts — begins to attack the worker as well. As a brawl breaks out, some Black bystanders get involved in the fight in order to defend the man.

Another social media video shows a Black teenager — who appears to be a colleague of the man being attacked — jump into the water and swim to the dock in order to help out.

Many people on social media have dubbed the teenager “ Black Aquaman ” — and the rest of the Black bystanders who defended the worker as the “ Black Justice League .”

Makina Lashea, a woman who says she’s a publicist for the teenager’s family, said in a statement posted to Facebook that the swimmer is a 16-year-old boy who she identified only as Aaren.

“In the face of adversary, Aaren selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showcasing courage beyond his years,” Lashea wrote. “We are immensely proud of his actions and the values he exemplifies, standing as an inspiration to us all.”

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What we know about the Montgomery Riverfront brawl

A group of White boaters attacked a Black co-captain on Saturday on a dock at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., sparking a massive brawl that resulted in assault charges and the city’s mayor calling for justice to be served to the boaters “for attacking a man who was doing his job.”

Three White men were charged with misdemeanor assault over the brawl after 13 people were initially detained by police for interviews , Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert said at a news conference with Mayor Steven L. Reed (D) on Tuesday. Those charged were Richard Roberts, 48; Allen Todd, 23; and Zachery Shipman, 25. Several people were detained after video clips of the brawl went viral on social media over the weekend.

Reed said in a statement Sunday that police “acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job.” He called the fight “an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred.”

Here’s what we know so far about the incident:

• Men charged in Montgomery brawl had been ‘trouble’ for riverboat, captain says August 10, 2023 Men charged in Montgomery brawl had been ‘trouble’ for riverboat, captain says August 10, 2023
• How oral storytelling helped a blind man see the Montgomery brawl August 12, 2023 How oral storytelling helped a blind man see the Montgomery brawl August 12, 2023
• Racial tensions linger in Montgomery after dock brawl August 12, 2023 Racial tensions linger in Montgomery after dock brawl August 12, 2023

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Police Investigate Alabama Riverfront Brawl

The Montgomery police are seeking the arrest of several people in connection with a fight that broke out over the weekend when a group of white boaters attacked a Black boat captain.

By Remy Tumin and Chang Che

Update: All three men who were wanted in the brawl have turned themselves in . A woman also turned herself in to Montgomery police.

The police in Montgomery, Ala., are expected to charge at least three people in connection with a brawl that broke out over the weekend when a group of white boaters attacked a Black boat captain at the city’s popular Riverfront Park. The violent scene, which bystanders captured on video, has stoked memories of the city’s racist history.

The police issued arrest warrants for three men and more might follow, said Darryl J. Albert, the chief of the Montgomery Police Department, at a news conference on Tuesday. Richard Roberts, 48, faces two warrants for third-degree assault, a misdemeanor; Allen Todd, 23, faces one warrant for third-degree assault; and Zachery Shipman, 25, also faced a warrant for third-degree assault. All three men have been asked to turn themselves in; none of them are residents of Montgomery, the police said.

One of the men has already turned himself in to the police in Selma, Ala., Chief Albert said, and the other two are expected to turn themselves in later Tuesday afternoon.

A fourth man, Reggie Gray, 42, was wanted for questioning by the police after videos showed him wielding a folding chair during the incident, Chief Albert said.

While the police and federal authorities are still reviewing video evidence, the Montgomery police are not pursuing hate crime or riot charges at this time, he said.

“When the incident took place, the Police Department didn’t have the luxury of videos that we all have seen now,” Chief Albert said. “Now that we have more information, more charges are pending.”

Bystanders captured the incident on video from multiple angles that showed how a lively Saturday afternoon on the Alabama River turned into an all-out brawl. The fight, which seemed largely to be divided along racial lines, garnered a large social media response, including cartoons , TikTok videos , a song and even re-enactments , with many users reacting to a seeming reversal of fate along one of America’s most brutal historical markers of the slave trade. The fight occurred at the same dock where enslaved Africans arrived by steamboat to be sold in the center of town.

The altercation began when a group of white boaters docked a pontoon in an area designated for a larger riverboat on the Gun Island Chute portion of the Alabama River in Montgomery. The riverboat, known as the Harriott II, offers cruises with dining and live entertainment along a stretch of the river.

As the Harriott tried to re-dock after an outing with 227 passengers aboard, its captain attempted to contact the owners of the pontoon for 45 minutes via the public announcement service, instructing them to move their vessel, Chief Albert said.

They responded with “gestures, curse words and taunting,” he said.

After this, Dameion Pickett, a co-captain of the Harriott, took a ride on a small boat to the dock so he could talk to them, Chief Albert said. When Mr. Pickett, who is Black, tried to move the pontoon just enough to allow the Harriott to dock, the owners of the pontoon confronted him “in a very hostile manner” and attacked him, Chief Albert said.

“The co-captain was doing his job,” he said.

Several members of the Harriott’s crew “came to Mr. Pickett’s defense,” Chief Albert said, “engaging in what we all have seen since on social media.”

Videos showed one of the white men then punching Mr. Pickett, who was jumped on and beaten by the other white boaters; one of them appears to try to place Mr. Pickett in a headlock. Other videos show another Black man, who appears to be a staff member of the Harriott II, jump off the riverboat and swim to the dock to defend Mr. Pickett as other Black bystanders join them on the deck. Several videos show one Black bystander, whom the police identified as Mr. Gray, hitting a white man with a folding chair.

Chief Albert said that in addition to Mr. Pickett, an unnamed 16-year-old white male, who took Mr. Pickett to the dock, was also attacked by the owners and operators of the pontoon. Mr. Pickett received treatment for injuries on Saturday night, but Chief Albert said he did not know of anyone else seeking medical care.

Mayor Steven L. Reed, Montgomery’s newly elected first Black mayor, said at the news conference that the attack did not characterize the Montgomery community at large, especially since the attackers were not from the city.

“It’s important for us to address this as an isolated incident, one that was avoidable and one that was brought on by individuals who chose the wrong path of action,” Mr. Reed said at the news conference. “This is not indicative of our community at all.”

An earlier version of this article, relying on information provided by the Montgomery Police Department, misspelled the given names of two people. The boat co-captain is Dameion Pickett, not Damien; and a person charged is Zachery Shipman, not Zachary.

How we handle corrections

Remy Tumin is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics. More about Remy Tumin

Chang Che is the Asia technology correspondent for The Times. He previously worked for The China Project and as a freelance writer covering Chinese technology and society. More about Chang Che

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The riverfront brawl in Alabama reignites national debate over race

Dustin Jones

The Harriott II riverboat sits at the Riverfront dock in Montgomery, Ala. Three white men have been charged with assault for attacking the ship's co-captain last Saturday, which turned into a brawl along racial lines, as seen in dozens of videos online. Kim Chandler/AP hide caption

The Harriott II riverboat sits at the Riverfront dock in Montgomery, Ala. Three white men have been charged with assault for attacking the ship's co-captain last Saturday, which turned into a brawl along racial lines, as seen in dozens of videos online.

Warning: This story contains profanity and a racial slur.

Police in Montgomery, Ala., say that they have not found evidence that last weekend's riverfront brawl — in which a large number of people squared off against each along racial lines — rises to the level of a hate crime.

However, a week later, people who have seen videos of the fight, including experts, pundits and social media users, remain divided: Some are saying race had nothing to do with the incident, while others say the footage clearly shows how groups divided by race.

What's certain is that the incident has reignited conversations about race across the U.S.

I've spent my career explaining race, but hit a wall with Montgomery brawl memes

What montgomery officials are saying.

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the brawl doesn't meet the criteria for hate crime charges under federal law. He said that he also understands why people are raising the issue of race.

"That's why this department went above and beyond and looked under every stone for answers," Albert said, adding that the charges that were brought accurately reflect the evidence available at the time. Investigations are ongoing.

Steven L. Reed, Montgomery's first Black mayor , has promised to hold the people responsible for fight accountable. He says he has two different perspectives on the incident, one as a public servant and one as Black man.

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed (seen here on Aug. 8 speaking to the press with Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert in the background) says the people responsible for the fight will be held accountable. Julie Bennett/Getty Images hide caption

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed (seen here on Aug. 8 speaking to the press with Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert in the background) says the people responsible for the fight will be held accountable.

"At this point in the investigation, the FBI has not classified these attacks as a hate crime. As a former judge and as an elected official, I understand that and will trust this process and the integrity of our justice system," Reed said in a statement to NPR on Thursday.

"However, my perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor. From what we've seen from the history of our city — a place tied to both the pain and the progress of this nation – it seems to meet the moral definition, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked."

He also says that as more information becomes available, his office will work with the U.S. Justice Department to "thoroughly vet whether new evidence reclassifies the incident as a hate crime per FBI protocol."

How the brawl unfolded

Dozens of videos of the incident last Saturday began surfacing earlier this week, including one from Alabama political reporter Josh Moon, who shared a video of the fight on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It shows that the incident at Montgomery's Riverfront Park appears to have started after a group of people docked their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the city's riverboat, the Harriott II.

A screenshot from one of the videos of the brawl in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday. The video shows a fight that broke out between a boat co-captain and several men who appeared to be parking their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the city's riverboat. @Josh_Moon/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

A screenshot from one of the videos of the brawl in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday. The video shows a fight that broke out between a boat co-captain and several men who appeared to be parking their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the city's riverboat.

After 45 or so minutes of announcements over a loudspeaker asking for the pontoon boat to be moved, the Black co-captain of the Harriott II, named as Dameion Pickett in court documents, and a white 16-year-old deckhand, who NPR isn't naming because he's a minor, went ashore to move the craft so the riverboat could dock, said Albert, the police chief.

Pickett, 43, was confronted by several men from the pontoon boat, and heated conversation escalated to a fight. Video appears to show Richard Roberts, 48, striking Pickett first. Allen Todd and Zachery Shipman joined the fight, punching and kicking Pickett.

Another Harriott II crew member, Crystal Warren, witnessed the incident from aboard the riverboat. Her son is the 16-year-old deckhand, who was allegedly assaulted by people associated with the pontoon boat . She said in a sworn statement to police that she heard one of the men yell, "F*** that n*****" as Pickett was trying to move the vessel.

3 men are being charged with assault for the waterfront brawl in Montgomery

Warren also said that one of the men fighting Harriot II crew members was heard saying he was "getting his gun." She said a riverboat employee tackled the man as he appeared to try and get the weapon.

As of Friday, Roberts has been charged with two counts of 3rd degree assault, while Todd, 23 , and Shipman , 25, each face one count of 3rd degree assault. They are scheduled to be arraigned on these misdemeanor charges on Sept. 1. (A fourth person, Mary Todd, 21, has also been charged with one count of 3rd degree assault.)

NPR attempted to reach the defendants for comment, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Why conversations about race are hard for officials

It's not surprising that authorities have been reluctant to discuss race, says Christina Ferraz , a public relations consultant who specializes in reaching communities of color.

Public officials can be risk-averse on the topic because of its general divisiveness in today's "culture wars," says Ferraz .

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"As this conflict may be identified as racially motivated, but not yet been charged as a hate crime, it can be considered slander and defamation of character for a public official to make a statement on the conflict without anyone being charged," Ferraz tells NPR. "Public officials can be sued and this can negatively impact their brand reputation with donors and constituents."

NPR reached out to the Montgomery Police Department for further comment, but did not receive a response.

One historian says the question of race is clear

Formal hate crime charges haven't been made, but observers like Derryn Moten , a professor of American history at Alabama State University, are blunt when describing Saturday's attack: "I completely reject the idea that race had no part or played no part in that incident."

To those who disagree, he says, "That's not what my eyes saw, that's not how my brain understood what I was looking at."

Moten, who also serves as chair of the university's Department of History and Political Science, says the fight took place in the area where enslaved people were brought in by boat on the Alabama River — and mere blocks from warehouses where they were held before being sold at auction.

Media outlets and pundits have been discussing these ties between Montgomery's racial history and the brawl. But Moten says what happened in Montgomery isn't exclusive to the South; it's a national problem.

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"The incident that happened in Montgomery is not unique to Montgomery," he says. "I don't want, or would not want, anybody to think, 'Oh, these are the types of things that just happen in the South.' No. Sadly, they can happen anywhere in the United States."

He says that race is a factor in many of the issues that currently divide the country, including critical race theory, what some politicians and conservative activists refer to as "cancel culture" and "wokeness," police use of deadly force, and how American history is taught.

When Republicans Attack 'Cancel Culture,' What Does It Mean?

"The time period that we're experiencing socially and politically in our country is really interesting in that there seems to be an effort among some, for lack of a better word, to sanitize American history, particularly American history as it relates to enslavement, as it relates to immigration, as it relates to the forced migration of Native people," Moten says. "And all of this done in an effort to paint the United States as exceptional. And I think any honest person who reads American history would find it impossible to accept that notion."

Despite the painful racial fault lines of the U.S. today, Moten says he remains optimistic that things will get better with time, and that "good ultimately will triumph."

"I'm a student of history, so I have a lot of evidence to back that up," he says, citing the reunification of Germany, the end of apartheid in South Africa and, closer to home, the success of the Montgomery bus boycott .

"I think one of the difficult things for a lot of people to accept is that we have to work constantly at making sure that equal protection means equal protection for all. That equal rights means equal rights for all. And that we can't rest on our laurels."

Correction Aug. 12, 2023

An earlier photo caption incorrectly referred to a dock worker instead of a boat co-captain.

Black Alabama boat captain, in middle of wild brawl caught in viral video, now accused of assault

The Black boat captain who was attacked by white boaters in a wild dockside brawl captured  in viral video  was accused of assault in connection with the Alabama melee, officials said Thursday.

Dameion Pickett, whom police have identified as co-captain of the Harriott II riverboat, was summoned to appear before a magistrate on Nov. 21 on allegations of assault in the third degree, a Montgomery court clerk said.

Video showed Pickett appearing to argue with boaters after asking them to make way for his craft on Aug. 5.

A shirtless white man is then seen forcefully shoving Pickett in the chest before taking a swing at the captain's face, touching off the wild melee. Several other shirtless white men surrounded Pickett and joined the fracas.

Pickett’s family said they've been told that the charge stems from allegations that the captain punched another man, Zachary Shipman.

Shipman has claimed he “had nothing to do with” the brawl and was trying to stop one of his friends from fighting, according to the captain’s sister, Nicole Pickett.

In Alabama, a person can make a misdemeanor complaint and have a magistrate issue a summons for an accused person to answer, a police spokesman said.

"Neither the City nor the Montgomery Police Department filed these charges," said the joint statement from the mayor and the police chief. "The Montgomery Police Department’s investigation only lists Mr. Pickett as a victim."

Shipman, though, is being charged with assault in the third degree , according to a court clerk.

Shipman could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.

But even if Shipman were an innocent bystander or a peacekeeper, Pickett’s family insists, it would be unreasonable to think their loved one should have paused under the circumstances to consider who was around him before defending himself.

“At that time, you got a bunch of angry a-- guys beating up on you in the head, you don't know who hit you,” sister Nicole Pickett said. “You just swing (in self-defense).”

David K. Li is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Alabama riverboat co-captain ‘held on for dear life’ in beatdown by boaters who’d caused ‘trouble’ before.

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The Alabama riverboat co-captain  attacked at the Montgomery Riverfront  said he “held on for dear life” while being battered by the unruly boaters — who had also caused them “trouble” in previous run-ins.

Damien Pickett said his crew asked the occupants of a pontoon boat “at least five or six times” to move from the docking spot dedicated to the Harriott II riverboat, according to a handwritten deposition  obtained by NBC News .

They responded by “giving us the finger” for several minutes, Pickett said.

After being ignored, Pickett and a dockhand then untied their boat and moved it “three steps to the right” and tied it again, he told authorities.

“By that time, two people ran up behind me,” he wrote, saying it included a man in a red hat who yelled, “Don’t touch that boat motherf–ker or we will beat your ass.”

“I told them, ‘No you won’t,’” he said, saying he told them when they kept threatening him: “Do what you’ve got to do. I’m just doing my job.”

Pickett said one of the men called another other and “They both were very drunk.”

While another man tried to “calm them down,” the boat’s owner arrived and “started getting loud.

“He got into my face. ‘This belongs to the f–king public.’ I told him this was a city dock,” Pickett recalled in his statement.

“By that time, a tall, older white guy came over and hit me in the face,” he said.

“I took my hat off and threw it in the air. Somebody hit me from behind. I started choking the older guy in front of me so he couldn’t anymore, pushing him back at the same time,” Pickett wrote. Someone then “tackled” him, he wrote. “I went to the ground. I think I hit one of them.

“I think I bit one of them, and I can hear them saying, ‘I’m going to kill you motherf–ker,'” he wrote.

“I can’t tell you how long it lasted. I grabbed someone and held on for dear life.”

After struggling to his feet, Pickett said he looked up and saw a colleague. “One of my co-workers had jumped in the water and was pushing people and fighting,” he wrote.

“The guy, the one who started it all was choking my sister,” he wrote, according to WSFA , which identified the suspect as Richard Roberts, 48.

“I hit him, grabbed her, and turned around, and [police] had a taser in my face. I told him I was attacked and said can I finish my job? Because the back of the boat wasn’t tied,” Pickett wrote.

When the situation was brought under control, he said he let off his passengers with the help of police. “I was apologizing to them for the inconvenience. Some of them gave me cards with their names and numbers,” he wrote.

Pickett said he was checked out at a hospital after the attack, where he found out that he had “no broken bones, just a few bruised ribs and a lump” on the head.

His fellow captain, Jim Kittrell, told Alabama’s 93.1 radio station that this wasn’t the first time he had trouble with the same boaters.

“This is the same group that comes every year … we’ve had trouble with them in the past, but just like jokey things,”  he told the station .

“Like, a couple of years ago, this same group was here. We came back from a cruise and our golf cart was missing. …we finally found it in the Hampton Inn lobby,” he said.

“We were going to press charges then, but the police talked us out of it.”

Kittrell previously said he believed the attack was “racially motivated,” but police say hate charges are not justified.

So far four people have been arrested for the attack, with police saying more are expected.

Roberts, Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, were charged Tuesday with assault, while a fourth suspect, Mary Todd, 21, was arrested Thursday after she turned herself into Montgomery police.

Police did not disclose what role she played in the brawl, but video shows a woman with features similar to Todd’s  hurling punches and shoving others  during the chaos.

It was unclear whether Mary Todd and Allen Todd are related.

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Riverboat Captain: Wild Dockside Attack on My Deckhand WAS Racially Motivated

“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,” Harriott II skipper Jim Kittrell told The Daily Beast.

Justin Rohrlich

Racism was at the heart of a dockside melee in Alabama that went viral over the weekend, according to the captain of the vessel whose Black crewman was attacked by a clutch of allegedly intoxicated white pleasure boaters.

“This whole thing is just because these guys were being assholes,” Capt. Jim Kittrell told The Daily Beast in an interview on Tuesday. “I was nice as a peach when I was talking to them at first: ‘Please, help me out here, fellas. Move the boat up a little bit.’”

The fracas began on Saturday evening when Kittrell found a pontoon boat docked in the spot reserved for the sightseeing riverboat Harriott II. He asked the boat’s owners over his PA system to move but was ignored, according to police. So Kittrell said a friend of his brought a smaller craft out to the Harriott II so a senior deckhand could go ashore and clear the way for the larger vessel, carrying 227 passengers, to dock. Kittrell said he only needed “two or three feet” to maneuver the Harriott II in safely, but after the clearly intoxicated people on the pontoon boat continued to simply disregard him, he had no choice but to call 911.

When Kittrell’s deckhand, Damien Pickett, got to the dock, he carefully pushed the pontoon boat forward by a few feet, so Harriott II could disgorge its passengers. Bystander video showed Pickett, who is Black, trying to reason with the pontoon boaters, who were white. Suddenly, a young white man rushed Pickett and punched him in the face. Other white men and women from the pontoon boat quickly jumped in, assaulting both Pickett and the 16-year-old boy who had taken Pickett ashore, police said Tuesday. (The teen is a deckhand trainee, and the only white member of the Harriott II’s crew, Kittrell said.)

Seeing his outnumbered shipmate being pummeled, one of Pickett’s colleagues—a teenager now known affectionately online as Black Aquaman—swam in to help; several others came to his aid once Harriott II tied up. At this point, the dynamic shifted and the ones who initially brutalized Pickett soon found themselves overpowered in an all-out brawl that appeared to be divided along racial lines.

Three of Pickett’s attackers—Richard Roberts, 48, Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25— now have warrants out for their arrest for third-degree assault, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert said Tuesday. Reggie Gray, a 42-year-old Black man seen walloping some of Pickett’s attackers with a folding chair, was also wanted for further questioning. While Albert said investigators did not find enough evidence to substantiate hate crime charges, Kittrell believes otherwise.

“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.”

The rest of the fight, however, “was not Black and white,” according to Kittrell.

“It was just shipmates trying to help a shipmate,” he said. “They could’ve been little green men, for all they cared. When they attacked Damien, my crew was gonna jump out and do the best they could to help him out. It was my crew against the people who attacked their shipmate, that’s all it was.”

Kittrell described any ship’s crew as more of a brotherhood than that of a typical work relationship. He said he has known Pickett for 10 years, setting off on voyages together that are sometimes several days long. They have grown to care deeply about each other, as have the rest of the crewmen, Kittrell said.

At the same time, Pickett is over 40, diabetic, and has hypertension, according to Kittrell.

“He’s not someone who wants to be out there throwing fists,” he went on. “He shouldn’t be. It got me really mad, sitting up there in the wheelhouse knowing there was nothing I could do. I didn’t see it coming; on the boat, I’m three floors up. The whole time, I’m yelling on the PA, ‘Stop! Somebody help!’ It was all I could do.”

The three men facing charges over the attack on Pickett were not familiar to Kittrell, he said. However, he said he recognized them as part of a group of seven or eight pontoon boat owners who travel from Selma to Montgomery each year.

Boaters “tend to be happy and friendly people, they’re normally not a problem,” Kittrell said. This particular set, conversely, has previously caused trouble, he went on, blaming them for once having stolen a golf cart the Harriott II used to transport disabled passengers between the ferry and the parking lot.

But, said Kittrell, “Stealing the golf cart was a joke, a prank. There’s never been any kind of serious trouble like this.”

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

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47-year-old man fighting for his life after attack outside trailer near Yakima River

A stabbing victim continues to fight for his life after being attacked outside a trailer in rural Benton County.

The 47-year-old man went to the home on the 61000 block of Old Inland Empire Highway (OIE) on Friday morning, according to court documents.

The area has a small collection of travel trailers near the Yakima River and is about equally distant between Prosser and Benton City.

It’s unclear if he was mean to visit Randy Alan Switzer or someone else, but when he knocked, Switzer yelled at him to leave. Switzer then yelled, “I got something for you,” opened the door and stabbed him with a knife, say court documents.

The victim ran to the road and called for help.

When police found him, he had wounds on his torso and the back of his neck. He was rushed to a local hospital.

The victim told investigators he didn’t know why Switzer, 66, attacked him, according to court documents. He was going in and out of consciousness at the time they were interviewing him.

Switzer was found near the Yakima River River shortly after the incident and arrested.

He made his first appearance in Benton County Superior Court on Monday, and is on a 72-hour hold on investigation of first-degree assault.

Court Commissioner Megan Whitmire set his bail at $500,000.

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Attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targets a ship in the Red Sea, though its crew is reportedly safe

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a tanker in the Red Sea early Friday but the ship’s crew was unharmed, authorities said. It was the latest in the rebels’ campaign against shipping over Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip .

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center initially reported the ship had been “struck by a missile” off the port city of Hodeida but later Friday said that further inspection of the vessel in daylight found no damage.

It described the crew as being “safe” and said the ship was continuing on its way.

The private security firm Ambrey also reported Friday’s attack and said the tanker with armed guards aboard had a “near miss” on Thursday off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. It said the ship had been Israel-affiliated but changed owners in February.

In a statement, the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the tanker as the Panama-flagged, Vietnamese-owned Pacific 01. That tanker previously had been owned by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which has been repeatedly targeted by the Houthis. That company is ultimately controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.

The rebels also claimed they targeted an American destroyer, without elaborating. U.S. warships have repeatedly been targeted by Houthi missile and drone attacks.

The U.S. military’s Central Command in a statement acknowledged the Houthis fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles Friday into the Red Sea, but said they didn’t hit anything.

The UKMTO and Ambrey reported another attack late Friday, but said the Houthi fire missed the Marshall Islands-flagged gas carrier it apparently tried to target.

The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end its offensive in Gaza.

The ships targeted by the Houthis, however, largely have had little or no connection to Israel, the U.S. or other nations involved in the war. The rebels have also fired missiles toward Israel, though they have largely fallen short or been intercepted.

The assaults on shipping have raised the profile of the Houthis, who are members of Islam’s minority Shiite Zaydi sect, which ruled Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962.

A report Thursday claimed the Houthis now had a hypersonic missile , potentially increasing that cachet and putting more pressure on Israel after a cease-fire deal failed to take hold in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Hypersonic missiles would pose a more serious threat to American and allied warships in the region.

Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden , killing three of its crew members and forcing survivors to abandon the vessel. It marked the first fatal attack by the Houthis on shipping.

Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer, the Rubymar, which later sank after drifting for several days.

Riverboat vom 15. März | Video der Sendung vom 15.03.2024 22:00 Uhr (15.3.2024) mit Untertitel

Riverboat vom 15. märz.

Kim Fisher und Matze Knop begrüßen diesmal beim Riverboat: Lang Lang, Gina Alice Redlinger, Jessy Wellmer, Marijke Amado, Olaf Berger, Michael Kind, Janine Kunze und Christine Rauch.

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Russian media claims Houthis have hypersonic missiles to target U.S. ships in the Red Sea

March 14, 2024 / 10:17 AM EDT / AP

Dubai, United Arab Emirates  — Yemen's Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia's state media reported Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their ongoing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways, which the group claims it is carrying out in response to  Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unnamed official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine.

However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about "surprises" they plan for the battles at sea to counter the United States and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Mideast waters.

Meanwhile, Iran and the U.S. reportedly held indirect talks in Oman, the first in months amid their long-simmering tensions over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program and attacks by its proxies.

Iran, the Houthis' main benefactor, claims to have a hypersonic missile and is widely accused of arming the rebels with the missiles they now use. Adding a hypersonic missile to their arsenal could pose a more-formidable challenge to the air defense systems employed by America and its allies, including Israel.

"The group's missile forces have successfully tested a missile that is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 8 and runs on solid fuel," a military official close to the Houthis said, according to the RIA report. The Houthis "intend to begin manufacturing it for use during attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel."

Mach 8 is eight times the speed of sound.

Russia has maintained close ties with Iran, relying on Iranian bomb-carrying drones to target Ukraine. Russian state media, particularly its Arabic-language services, have closely reported on Yemen's yearslong civil war that pits the Iran-backed Houthis against forces of the internationally backed Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition.

Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds higher than Mach 5, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability.

The danger from a hypersonic missile depends on how maneuverable it is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the U.S.-made Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. The more irregular the missile's flight path, such as a hypersonic missile with the ability to change directions, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.

China is believed to be pursuing the weapons , as is America . Russia claims it has already used them on the battlefield in Ukraine . However, speed and maneuverability isn't a guarantee the missile will successfully strike a target. Ukraine's air force in May said it shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a Patriot battery.

In Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi rebels' secretive supreme leader, boasted about the rebels' weapons efforts at the end of February.

"We have surprises that the enemies do not expect at all," he warned at the time.

A week ago, he similarly warned: "What is coming is greater."

"The enemy ... will see the level of achievements of strategic importance that place our country in its capabilities among the limited and numbered countries in this world," al-Houthi said, without elaborating.

After seizing Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014, the Houthis ransacked government arsenals, which held Soviet-era Scud missiles and other arms.

As the Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen's conflict in 2015, the Houthis arsenal was increasingly targeted. Soon — and despite Yemen having no indigenous missile manufacturing infrastructure — newer missiles made their way into rebel hands.

Iran long has denied arming the Houthis, likely because of a yearslong United Nations arms embargo on the rebels. However, the U.S. and its allies have seized multiple arms shipments bound for the rebels in Mideast waters. Weapons experts as well have tied Houthi arms seized on the battlefield back to Iran.

Iran also now claims to have a hypersonic weapon. In June, Iran unveiled its Fattah, or "Conqueror" in Farsi, missile, which it described as being a hypersonic. It described another as being in development.

Iran's mission to the U.N. did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, nor did the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Mideast waterways.

Israel's military — which also has come under Houthi fire since the war against Hamas erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage — declined to comment.

Also Thursday, The Financial Times reported that the U.S. and Iran held indirect talks in Oman in January "to end attacks on ships in the Red Sea." The last known round of such talks had come last May.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency indirectly acknowledged the talks but insisted they were "merely limited to negotiations on lifting anti-Iran sanctions."

The U.S. State Department did not immediately acknowledge the talks or comment.

The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end the war in Gaza, which has seen over 31,000 Palestinians killed in the besieged strip. The ships attacked, however, have increasingly had little or no connection to Israel, the U.S. or other nations involved in the war.

But the assaults have raised the profile of the Houthis, whose Zaydi people ruled a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen up until 1962. Adding a new weapon to their arsenal would put more pressure on Israel after a cease-fire deal failed to take hold in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three of its crew members and forcing survivors to abandon the vessel. It marked their first fatal attack by the Houthis on shipping.

Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer, the Rubymar, which later sank after drifting for several days, and the downing of an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.

A new suspected Houthi attack targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, but missed the vessel and caused no damage, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said he wouldn't be surprised if Iran transferred a new, hypersonic weapon to the Houthis. However, the question is how maneuverable such a weapon would be at hypersonic speeds and whether it could hit moving targets, like ships in the Red Sea.

"I wouldn't exclude the possibility that the Houthis have some system that has some maneuvering capability to some extent," Hinz said. "It is also possible for the Iranians to transfer new stuff for the Houthis to test it."

• Houthi Movement
• Middle East

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Two Civilians Perish in Kherson Oblast Following Attack on Car by Russian Forces

A n assault by Russian forces on a civilian vehicle resulted in the death of two individuals on the roadway connecting the villages of Antonivka and Sadove in Kherson Oblast, announced Governor Oleksandr Prokudin on March 20th.

These villages, Antonivka and Sadove, are situated on the Dnipro River’s western bank and previously had a combined population of about 14,000 before the onset of Russia’s large-scale invasion.

Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully recovered Kherson and additional settlements on the west bank in 2022. Consequently, Russian military units retreated to the eastern side of the river. Despite this, they continue to launch attacks on the recovered areas, leading to regular casualties among civilians and widespread damage to residential properties and public utilities.

Governor Prokudin specified that the deceased men were both in their forties.

Another incident of a civilian car being targeted by Russia on the same route occurred recently, resulting in three men sustaining injuries in an attack on March 19, as reported by the regional military authority here .

Moreover, on March 19, Russian forces deployed a drone to drop explosives on a civilian vehicle near Osokorivka village, positioned alongside the Dnipro River. The attack left a woman aged 57 and a man aged 58 wounded.

As of March 20th morning, Russian incursions in Kherson Oblast have resulted in one death and five injuries within the previous day. These military strikes impacted 18 towns and villages , including the regional hub of Kherson, as relayed by the local military government.

• What was the target of the Russian attack in Kherson Oblast?

A civilian car traveling between the villages of Antonivka and Sadove was the target.

• How many people were killed in the recent attack?

Two men, estimated to be around 40 years old, were killed.

• Have there been similar attacks recently?

Yes, another civilian car on the same route was attacked on March 19, injuring three men, and a drone attack on a civilian car occurred near Osokorivka village.

• What areas did Russian military strikes impact recently in Kherson Oblast?

Eighteen cities and villages, including Kherson itself, were struck, leading to one fatality and five injuries.

The continuing violence in the Kherson region underscores the heavy toll that the conflict is taking on civilians. The recent events involving the attacks on civilian vehicles highlight the precarious situation for those residing in the contested regions near the Dnipro River. The international community closely follows these developments as the struggle for control in Kherson Oblast remains a focal point of the larger conflict.

Note: We, TheUBJ, do not produce the news content presented here. The information provided is a rewritten version sourced from various sources on the internet through AI news feed technology. We do not claim ownership or authorship of the news content. The original https://kyivindependent.com/russian-troops-attack-civilian-car-in-kherson-oblast-2-killed/ link is provided for reference.

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Ukraine war briefing: another Russian oil refinery burns after drone strikes

More than 75 also wounded after second missile strike in residential area hits responders to initial attack. What we know on day 752

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Ukrainian drones struck two Rosneft oil refineries in Russia’s Samara region, leaving one facility on fire on Saturday , the region’s governor said. The Volga river region’s Syzran refinery was on fire, Dmitry Azarov said on Telegram. His comments also confirmed an attack on the Novokubyshev refinery. Workers at both plants had been evacuated and there were no casualties, Azarov claimed. Unverified footage posted online showed what appeared to be a major fire at the Syzran refinery, with emergency services working at the scene.The Samara region is closer to Kazakhstan than to Ukraine.

A Russian ballistic missile attack hit civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odesa on Friday, killing at least 20 people – including rescuers – and wounding more than 75 in Moscow’s deadliest attack in weeks, Ukrainian officials said. Two Russian ballistic missiles fired from the Moscow-occupied peninsula of Crimea struck a residential area in Odesa, the region’s governor, Oleh Kiper, said on national television. A medic and a rescuer were killed by a second missile after rushing to the scene to treat people hurt in the initial strike, he added. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called the attack “vile”. A three-storey recreational facility was destroyed in the attack, as well as at least 10 private houses, the southern military command said. Saturday was declared a local day of mourning.

Germany’s chancellor, France’s president and Poland’s prime minister met in Berlin and, in a public briefing, said Europe was united and determined in its support for Ukraine . Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk also said they would use frozen Russian assets to purchase more weapons for Ukraine on the world market. The meeting follows tensions between France and Germany over Russia.

One person was killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian city of Grayvoron in the Belgorod region , the governor said on Telegram. Earlier, Russia claimed it had thwarted attempts by Ukraine to stage cross-border raids into the territory, but produced no evidence to support this, while a senior Ukrainian intelligence official claimed that Kursk and Belgorod regions were “active combat zones”.

Two people were reported killed and five injured by Russian shelling in northern Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight to Friday, with houses and cars damaged. As well there were missile strikes in the Kharkiv, Poltava and Donetsk regions.

G7 countries warned Iran they would impose “significant” new sanctions if Tehran transferred ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine. The group – which includes the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada – also said it reiterated its “call on third parties to immediately cease providing material support” to Russia’s war “or face severe costs”.

Ukraine claimed to have attacked an oil refinery in the Kaluga region with drones, causing damage. Russian authorities claimed, as is their custom, that air defences shot down the drones and there was “no infrastructure damage or casualties”.

Russia’s federal security service said a Russian national had been detained in Moscow on suspicion of treason and had confessed to assembling and launching drones on behalf of Ukraine.

The European Union is set to agree on sanctions on several people seen as involved in the mistreatment and death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony last month, three diplomats have said.

Russia’s presidential election opened on Friday, with 114 million Russians eligible to vote, and will end on Sunday with an almost inevitable victory for Vladimir Putin. The president is running against Communist Nikolai Kharitonov, Leonid Slutsky, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic party, and Vladislav Davankov of the New People party. Two anti-war candidates, Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova, were barred from running by the electoral commission.

Voting is also taking place in the four occupied regions of Ukraine which Russia claims to have annexed despite its forces only partially controlling the territory. Kyiv has said the election there is illegal, and on Friday the UN secretary general, António Guterres, also condemned it, with a spokesperson saying Russia’s annexations had no validity under international law. At a meeting of Russia’s security council, Putin accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt the voting process and people in the border regions with “a number of criminal armed actions”. He claimed the attempts to break into Russia did not succeed and would not go unpunished.

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Russia’s belgorod region is under attack again from ukraine. why does it keep getting targeted.

Associated Press

Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov telegram channel

FILE - This photo released by Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov's Telegram channel on Saturday, March 16, 2024, shows cars damaged by shelling from Ukraine in Belgorod, Russia. The region that borders Ukraine has seen a surge in Ukrainian attacks as Kyiv's forces ramped up strikes as the war drags into a third year. (Belgorod region Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov Telegram channel via AP, File)

Russia’s Belgorod region has come under increasing Ukrainian attacks this month as the invasion by Moscow grinds into its third year.

A look at the region and its role in the war:

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WHAT IS THE BELGOROD REGION?

The region of forests, farmland and rolling hills has a 540-kilometer (335-mile) border along Ukraine’s northeastern edge. It has an area of over 27,000 square kilometers (about 10,500 square miles), and has a population of about 1.5 million.

It holds about 40% of Russia's iron ore and other minerals, and is home to several major industrial companies and farms.

The city of Belgorod, the provincial capital with a population of about 340,000, sits only 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the border, making it an easy target for Ukrainian artillery.

WHAT HAS THE REGION FACED?

The region was one staging ground for the invasion by Russia in February 2022. It has come under regular Ukrainian attacks ever since Russian forces retreated there from northeastern Ukraine early in the war under the brunt of a counteroffensive by Kyiv.

An attack on the city of Belgorod on Dec. 30 marked a bloody escalation. A barrage of rockets struck on a holiday weekend as residents celebrated the New Year. Officials said 25 people were killed, including five children, and over 100 were injured.

The bloodshed also forced officials to cancel celebrations for the Orthodox feast of Epiphany on Jan. 19.

Regular rocket and drone strikes have continued since then. The area can be struck by relatively simple and mobile weapons such as multiple rocket launchers from forests on the Ukrainian side.

Border villages have faced repeated incursions backed by tanks, armored infantry vehicles and other heavy weapons. Russia claimed that it has repelled the attacks and inflicted heavy losses.

The repeated Ukrainian attacks have dealt a heavy blow to President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to reassure Russians that their daily lives are largely untouched by the war.

Russian border villages in the region have been targeted sporadically during the war by Ukrainian artillery fire, rockets, mortar shells and drones launched from dense forests, where they are hard to detect.

WHAT WAS PUTIN'S REACTION?

The cross-border shelling and incursions took place as Putin has cemented his grip on power for another six years in a highly orchestrated election this month that followed a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Putin says the attacks are an attempt to scare residents. “I’m sure that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to that with even greater cohesion,” he said last week .

He vowed the Ukrainian cross-border attacks “won’t go unpunished,” venting particular anger at pro-Kyiv Russians who joined Ukrainian troops in the incursions, describing them as traitors who will face imminent death.

HOW HAVE BELGOROD OFFICIALS RESPONDED?

After the New Year weekend attack, authorities expanded a network of shelters in Belgorod and reinforced bus stops with concrete blocks and sandbags. The regional government also provided assistance to those wanting to leave the city and other border areas temporarily.

Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov this week ordered the evacuation of 9,000 children from the region and ordered schools closed through Friday in Belgorod and other areas near the border. Universities in the area will switch to remote learning, and clubs and cultural and sports institutions will close.

Military checkpoints were set up to control entry to six border villages.

WHAT DO UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS SAY?

Ukrainian officials rarely comment on attacks inside Russia, but they emphasize Kyiv's right to use all means to counter Moscow’s aggression.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that any military action there was “the direct consequence of the illegal and unprovoked aggression of Russia against Ukraine.”

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/ukraine

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