Man assaulted along bridge in Bangor

Bangor police are looking for a man suspected of assaulting and trying to rob another man Wednesday afternoon.

The victim told police that he was headed to Manna soup kitchen on Center Street and decided to cross the bridge spanning the Kenduskeag Stream in the city’s downtown. As he approached the bridge, he saw three men sharing a bottle, the man told Officer Catherine Rumsey. One of the three began yelling at the man, insulting him as he passed.

Then the man who was yelling took off his jacket and ran after the other man, knocking him to the ground and demanding money, according to the report. The man didn’t have any money and said so.

The victim managed to get up and tried to walk away, but told Rumsey the other man confronted him and seemed to threaten to throw him off the bridge, just as a gay man had been in 1984.

The victim said he grabbed onto the railing, thinking he was going to be thrown off the bridge. The other man punched him in the stomach instead and walked away.

The man was injured in the incident and showed Rumsey bruising and abrasions on his hand. He also said he had a bump on his head. He didn’t know his assailant, but believes he can identify him if he sees him again.

The assailant was described as being a Native American, possibly in his mid-30s, of average build and with short dark hair and a moustache. He was wearing work boots, blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a tan jacket with flannel lining. Rumsey said she was unable to locate him.

A Bangor woman already out on bail on a drug charge was arrested Tuesday night after Bangor police reported she was weaving across both lanes of Ohio Street and nearly struck a fire hydrant.

Nicole M. Knight, 19, was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, possession of a Schedule Z drug and violation of bail conditions.

Bangor police Sgt. Larry Weber was headed out Ohio Street about 7:20 p.m. when he noticed the extremely erratic driving of a car ahead of him, even with a pickup between them. Weber reported that the car drifted to the right and then back to its lane at least three times, kicking up dust and nearly ending up in a ditch as it went. Then it drifted to the other side of the road, completely crossing into the oncoming lane and onto the dirt along that side of the road, Weber reported.

The car then drifted back into its correct travel lane and kept going to the right, nearly striking a fire hydrant, according to the police report.

After being stopped, Knight explained that a lit cigarette had fallen to the floor and that she was trying to put it out before it burned a hole in the carpet.

But the police suspected there was more to the story: Herrick noted that Knight’s eyes were partially closed and that he could barely see her pupils and that she showed other signs of impairment.

Knight admitted to being out on bail on a drug charge from Hancock County and said she was addicted to heroin, but was trying to kick her habit, according to the police report. One police officer noted that both of her arms were peppered with needle punctures, some of them apparently fresh.

During field sobriety tests, Knight was unbalanced on her feet and continued to be unsteady on her feet at the police station, where an Intoxilyzer test was administered, the report said. No alcohol was detected in her blood, according to the Intoxilyzer test, but Officer Steve Jordan, a drug recognition expert, said he formed the opinion that she was under the influence of cannabis and central nervous system depressants.

Jordan reported that Knight was looking for a candy bar behind the Intoxilyzer machine.

Police said they took into evidence pills that fell out of Knight’s clothing while she was in the Intoxilyzer room and at the jail, as well as pills they found outside the police cruiser by the door she had gotten out of earlier. Some of those pills appeared to be Xanax, an anti-anxiety prescription drug, police said.

– Compiled by NEWS Reporter Doug Kesseli