Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed revealed on Tuesday during an appearance on MSNBC's "The Reidout" that the city has been working with the FBI to investigate the brawl that took place Saturday on the Montgomery Riverboat Dock.
Like many other news outlets, host Joy Reid tried to make the brawl a black-versus-white incident. When she asked if any suspects in the fight would be charged with hate crimes, Mayor Reed said there wasn't any evidence yet to support a racial motivation, but he and the city would continue to work with the FBI to explore all avenues of investigation.
The relevant portion of the video begins around the 2:30 mark.
"Based on the information that we have as of now from the FBI, it does not meet their criteria [for a hate crime], but we're working very closely with the FBI," Reed said. "We've asked witnesses to provide us with more information and testimony, as well, so this is fluid, and things can change, but as of now we don't have enough evidence to move forward in our conversations with the FBI. And again, we will continue to work very closely with law enforcement, and we will be very intense in our approach to this, and we realize the magnitude of what took place, and I saw what you all saw and millions of other people saw and that's disturbing."
Reed also said during his interview that former president Donald Trump speaking in Montgomery Friday "didn't help anything" related to the "atmosphere" of the city leading up to the brawl and that local law enforcement may have to take "extra measures" to deal with two of the three suspects who are "not being cooperative."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com.
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