*One of the white males involved in the #MeleeInMontgomery on August 6 is speaking out as his mini-mart is being it with a wave of negative reviews online.
The Vasser’s Mini Mart owned by Chase Shipman is roughly 50 miles away from where violence erupted over the weekend, TMZ reports. The chaos unfolded on the Montgomery Riverfront Saturday evening when Shipman and his companions refused a black dock worker’s request to move their pontoon boat from a space reserved for the city’s riverboat.
The viral video shows a confrontation between the worker and the white males before several white people attack the employee. In the clip, bystanders were quick to rush in to help the Black man, including a “heroic” young man named Aaren, who swam across a river.
On Monday, Shipman shared his involvement in the fight on the Facebook page of Vasser’s Mini Mart. He claims he tried to walk away from the situation, and included this video as proof.
Social media users have accused Shipman of being involved in the fight.
View this post on Instagram
“After he attacked and beat an innocent black Riverfront Park employee he tried to flee on foot and trick The Montgomery Police Department as if he wasn’t apart of the race brawl,” X user Sir Maejor wrote and included a video that appears to show Shipman.
As TMZ reports, Vasser’s has received over 300 1-star reviews since Saturday’s brawl, with many calling the owner “racist,” “liar,” and “gross.” One person wrote, “DO NOT SUPPORT THESE MONSTERS!!!”
“I would give this place zero stars if I could,” one review stated, RadarOnline.com reports. “Entitled Thugs that’s all, don’t throw rocks and hide your hands what y’all thought was going to happen,” another Yelp review read.
According to RadarOnline, an alert on Yelp states, “This business recently received increased public attention resulting in an influx of people posting their views to this page, so we have temporarily disabled the ability to post here as we work to investigate the content.”
“While racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in any form, all reviews on Yelp must reflect an actual first-hand consumer experience (even if that means disabling the ability for users to express points of view we might agree with).”
Following the violent melee, many were arrested, and Shipman hit up Facebook to deny being involved.
“I am sure most of you have seen the news about the riverboat incident. Yes, I was there but I was the first to try to get away,” he wrote a since-removed Facebook post. “You can see in the video I attached, and I do not condone what happened.”
“I tried to stop it and realized that I could not, so I tried to get away,” Shipman continued his statement.
“There is a video of me being the first to run away because what was happening was wrong and I did not want to be a part of it. I realize I have a business to run and represent and no charges were filed against me because I was not involved,” he stated.
One of the participants in the Montgomery Riverboat Run-down gives a little post fight commentary pic.twitter.com/jSRZSPiHTo
— Tariq Nasheed ???????? (@tariqnasheed) August 7, 2023
READ MORE: Knuck Knuck! Montgomery Riverfront Park Brawl Leads to Multiple Arrests | WATCH
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