A startling video appears to show a Jeep driver allegedly swerving toward a conservative news outlet’s reporter moments after confronting him.
Joe Sokol, a Maine reporter with The Maine Wire, narrowly avoided being struck Thursday morning while covering a story outside a methadone clinic in Bangor.
The confrontation unfolded as Sokol reported from public property near the Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center on Odlin Road, according to the Maine Wire.
The unidentified driver, dressed in a black hooded jacket and wearing a black cap with green sunglasses perched on top, accused Sokol of “invading people’s privacy” while speaking through the open window of a blue Jeep Compass.
“By being in public with a camera and doing a report?” Sokol responded.
The man then claimed Sokol was “videoing across the road.” When the reporter asked what he could do about it, the driver reportedly laughed, offered no answer and appeared to pull away.
Sokol resumed his report and suggested the driver was “essentially, probably intoxicated,” while acknowledging that there was “no way to tell.”
About 20 seconds later, the driver allegedly returned and sped through the area, passing within inches of Sokol. The reporter scrambled out of the Jeep’s path as his recording equipment hit the ground.
Joe Sokol, a reporter for The Maine Wire, was confronted by an angry driver while reporting outside a Bangor methadone clinic Thursday morning
Video recorded near the Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center shows a blue Jeep Compass passing extremely close to Sokol as he delivered his report
The Bangor Police Department told Our News Outlet Thursday afternoon that it was investigating the incident involving Sokol.
Police declined to provide additional information while the investigation remains active.
Video recorded after the encounter shows Sokol speaking with an unidentified woman near the clinic.
“Your patient just tried to run me over,” Sokol told her. “And we have cameras.”
The woman repeatedly told Sokol to “get off the property” but did not respond directly to his claim that the driver had tried to hit him.
“You want an assault charge?” Sokol asked in response.
The Maine Wire later described the video as “chilling” in a post on X, alleging that “some lunatic” had attempted to kill its reporter.
The outlet said it would pursue “all necessary actions” in an effort to seek justice for Sokol.
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The Maine Wire said Sokol was “unharmed and safe” following the alleged attempt to run him over
Video released by The Maine Wire shows the Jeep passing dangerously close to Sokol during the confrontation
The footage, captioned by the outlet, car zoomed by and knocked over the equipment Sokol was using outside the clinic
Sokol addressed the incident on Thursday afternoon, calling on others to watch the ‘shocking footage.’
‘Was this attempted murder incited by the methadone clinic?’ Sokol wrote on X.
The Maine Wire’s editor-in-chief, Steve Robinson, said the driver ‘identified Sokol as a journalist and expressed a clear intent to stop him from conducting routine journalism from public property.’
He also called what happened an attempted killing, according to the outlet.
‘Sokol’s quick-thinking and training immediately allowed him to preserve the license plate,’ Robinson continued.
Robinson added that Sokol was ‘unharmed and safe’ after the attempt to run him over.
He said the outlet would cooperate fully into an investigation that could lead to ‘any nearby accessories to attempted murder who may have provided this individual with intoxicating substances’ before the incident.
An unnamed woman repeatedly told Sokol to ‘get off the property’ in the moments after what he said was an attempted murder
Sokol was at the methadone clinic (pictured), which offers treatment for adults suffering from opioid addiction, to ‘ask questions’
A statement from The Maine Wire said Sokol was at the methadone clinic to ‘ask questions.’
The clinic has received more than $20.6 million in Medicaid payments since 2018, according to tracked Department of Health and Human Services data.
‘This is essentially a taxpayer funded drug dealing operation at the heart of Bangor, Maine,’ the outlet said on Facebook.
The Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center website says it offers outpatient treatment for adults who suffer from opioid addiction.
The center offers medication-assisted treatment with methadone, a powerful synthetic opioid that can delay withdrawal symptoms.
Our News Outlet has reached out to Sokol and Acadia Healthcare, which operates the Bangor treatment center, for further comment.
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