LAS VEGAS (KLAS)– The journalism and Las Vegas community suffered an enormous loss.
Those who knew Jeff German said he was an established journalist, and his work made an impact across the valley.
Steve Sebelius, the Review Journal’s politics, and government editor describes his colleague’s death as shocking.
“I woke up to a bunch of texts from people, I had no idea how it happened, why it happened,” said Sebelius. “I read a story in the RJ and shocking is the word. I’m still shocked by it.”
Investigative reporter Jeff German was found dead with stab wounds outside his home Saturday morning.
German covered news in the valley for decades, working at the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review Journal.
Sebelius first met German in 1993 and describes his friend as ambitious and a self-starter.
“He was also adaptable, they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” added Sebelius. “He was 69 years old, and he was learning how to do a podcast and adapting like he was like a millennial. It was really amazing to see him go off in new ways of telling stories.”
Channel 8’s Ron Futrell said German’s tenacity to get the top story made him bold.
“I get that not everybody is going to like what an investigative journalist does,” said Futrell. “We have them in our newsroom and not everyone is going to be happy, and he was like that, but he didn’t care, he wanted to get things right and he put it in the right context.”
Futrell knew German well.
They worked closely together, investigating the removal of Jerry Tarkanian as UNLV’s basketball coach.
“There’s so many questions right now and answers we don’t know to stuff, but I’ll tell you he was fearless,” said Futrell. “That’s one thing he was, and you can’t do some of the stories he did without being fearless and that’s what he was in that sense. You can see it in his writing.”
German’s neighbors said they didn’t know him, and didn’t see anything suspicious, but offered their condolences.
Metro police said they believe a fight led to German’s stabbing.
Police are still searching for the suspect but said they have a lead.
