Unhinged Driver Attempts To Run Over A Conservative Maine Reporter During A Recording

A black Jeep Compass with a crumpled front bumper backed up and then surged toward Maine Wire reporter Joe Sokol as he stood on a grassy strip holding a microphone, according to video the outlet posted Thursday and labeled an attempted murder.

The roughly 95-second clip, overlaid with the text “Attempted Murder Against a Reporter,” opens with Sokol in a black button-down shirt, dark trousers, and a black-and-white trucker hat standing beside the driver’s window of the Jeep Compass. Fallen leaves cover the grass. Sokol holds a microphone toward the open window while the driver, a man in a dark cap, leans out and points at him. The vehicle’s front end already shows visible damage.

The footage then cuts to Sokol facing the camera on the roadside, speaking and gesturing. Moments later the camera lurches: a black tripod lies toppled among the leaves, the view swings across pavement, a chain-link fence, trees, and a low commercial building, and the frame settles on a close-up of an older woman with reddish-brown hair, a green buttoned shirt, a purple fleece vest, and a cross necklace. Viewers of the clip have said she can be heard telling people to get “off the property.”

The Maine Wire wrote that the driver first reversed and then accelerated toward Sokol, who moved clear. The outlet called the man a “lunatic,” said it has the full interaction on camera, and pledged to “take all necessary actions to demand justice.” Online commenters who watched the video split on whether the Jeep was aimed at Sokol or at the camera equipment; several said the driver appeared to target the stand.

The confrontation occurred outside a building occupied by a clinic that leases the site; online discussion of the clip identified the property owner as J&R Associates, with an Augusta mailing address. No police statement or charges had been publicly reported as of Thursday afternoon.

The episode follows other physical confrontations involving Maine Wire staff. In July, Sokol was shoved multiple times at a Bangor demonstration by a man carrying a “healthcare 4 all” sign; Bangor police later charged Ronald Staples, 78, of Holden, with assault.

Separately, reporter Jon Fetherston was struck in the head with a skateboard at a Biddeford protest; prosecutors have floated resolving that case through an apology letter and a written reflection on press freedom rather than a conviction. The Maine Wire has said those lighter outcomes failed to deter further attacks on its reporters.