Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has filed a civil rights complaint against a Washington County man for allegedly threatening the lives of an interracial couple.
According to the attorney general's office, 52-year-old Dale O'Brien of Jonesboro allegedly fired a gun while a Black man, his white wife and their two children were walking with their dogs on a private road near O'Brien's house. According to the complaint, Frey says O'Brien only lowered the gun after one of the victims started recording him with a phone.
The incident took place in April, but the complaint says that just a month earlier, O'Brien had made threatening and racist comments about the couple to a local hardware store clerk, who reported it to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
The attorney general's office filed a civil complaint in Washington County Superior Court against O'Brien in August. Frey wants the court to forbid O'Brien from contacting the family and to fine him $5,000 dollars for each civil rights violation.
