Bangor police on Friday announced they had arrested a man in connection with an incident Thursday morning in which a driver went onto the grass and nearly hit a reporter from The Maine Wire.
The incident happened just before 8 a.m. on Odlin Road. In video footage filmed by The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, the reporter, Joe Sokol, is speaking to the camera when a driver backs onto the grass next to him and confronts him. After a brief exchange, the driver pulls away and Sokol continues recording.
That footage, along with surveillance video posted by The Maine Wire, shows a driver then cut across grass toward Sokol from the direction in which the car had just left, appearing to hit the camera that was filming Sokol.
Sokol was standing outside an addiction treatment center working on a report, according to a statement from the Maine Wire. As the vehicle nears, the video shows Sokol move toward the vehicle, in what The Maine Wire said was him trying to preserve evidence.
Bangor police investigated and identified the driver as Ryan Hayward, 38, of Bangor.
He was arrested and is charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, driving to endanger, and violating conditions of release.
