A reporter with a Nevada newspaper was killed over the weekend after an apparent altercation escalated into a stabbing at his home.
Jeff German, 69, was found by a neighbor with multiple stab wounds on the side of his home along the 7200 block of Bronze Circle in Las Vegas.
The neighbor called 9-1-1, and police responded to the scene, where they confirmed German has been killed from the attack.
The incident appeared to stem from a dispute between German and at least one other person, according to local authorities. There was no indication that the altercation or stabbing was connected to German’s work as an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, police said.
“We do have some leads,” Dori Koren, a captain with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said at a weekend press conference. “We are pursuing a suspect, but the suspect is outstanding.”
Following the incident, police released still images from a surveillance video that captured a person wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing. The images showed the person carrying a bag while wearing a sun hat, an orange safety jacket, blue jeans and gray or white sneakers.
It was not clear if German knew the person responsible for his death.
In a statement, the executive editor of the newspaper that employed German said they were “devastated to lose Jeff.”
“He was the gold standard of the news business,” Glenn Cook, the newspaper’s top editor, said. “It’s hard to imagine what Las Vegas would be like today without his many years of shining a bright light on dark places.”
German joined the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2010 after spending two decades writing a crime and courts column for the paper’s rival, the Las Vegas Sun. While at the Review-Journal, German helped break several exclusive stories on malfeasance and cover-ups within private industry and local government.
His reporting that immediately followed the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017 led to several changes in terms of public safety and emergency response. Within days of the shooting, German reported that the suspect in the crime, Stephen Paddock, had twice fired at jet fuel tanks. The reporting led to changes in how jet fuel tanks are secured.
German also filed reports that revealed emergency officials in Nevada had not received security briefings from casinos and other major public venues in the years leading up to the mass shooting, despite a law that requires public venues like casinos to file emergency plans with local and state officials. The mass shooting originated from within a casino; Paddock broke out a window and fired into a crowd at an open-air concert, killing nearly 60 people.
Over the weekend, Nevada Governor Steven Sisolak said German’s laws was “tragic…for our community,” and called the reporter “a great mentor to young reporters.”
German’s funeral is expected to be held on Wednesday.
