*A GoFundMe campaign for Reggie Ray, the Black man captured on camera using a folding chair as a weapon during the riverboat brawl in Montgomery, Alabama, has raised over $200,000 for his legal fees.
More than $250,000 in donations has been collected for Ray, 42, after he turned himself in to the Montgomery Police Department on Friday. He is charged with one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, Newsweek reports.
Ray is accused of using a folding chair to hit people during the infamous brawl in Montgomery, Alabama on August 5.
His arrest came after four white boaters were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault against Dameion Pickett, the Black co-captain of a riverboat on the waterfront.
Montgomery police said Reggie Ray, the 42 year old man accused of beating of people with a folding chair in the Montgomery brawl, has turned himself in.
He’s facing a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. pic.twitter.com/okqlFaDlGz
— My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) August 11, 2023
As Newsweek reports, the fundraiser’s total was more than $260,000 early on Monday.
“Funds raised here will be used to offset the cost of certain damages incurred by my clients and others involved in responding to the chaos at the riverfront,” a post on the page says. “These damages include but are not limited to medical bills, lost wages/earnings, professional services, travel, lodging and expenses.”
We reported previously that the fracas began on the Montgomery Riverfront when a group of white people refused a Black dock worker’s request to move their pontoon boat from a space reserved for the city’s riverboat, which was carrying 227 passengers.
Viral videos show a confrontation between Kittrell’s deckhand, Damien Pickett, and pontoon boaters. Pickett attempts to reason with the intoxicated group and video shows him attempting to push the pontoon boat a few feet to make room for the riverboat. Bystander video shows a white man rushing Pickett and punching him in the face.
Several others join in on the assault and reportedly hurled racial slurs at the Pickett. Many Black bystanders were quick to rush in to help Pickett, including a “heroic” young man named Aaren, who swam across a river.
Social media users have called for charges against Ray to be dropped.
According to police, the FBI determined what happened on the riverfront did not qualify as a hate crime, Newsweek reports. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, the city’s first Black mayor, said his “perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor”.
He added: “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 of a crime fuelled by hate, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked.
“It is a threat to the durability of our democracy, and we are grateful to our law enforcement professionals, partner organizations and the greater community for helping us ensure justice will prevail.”
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