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Robert Telles: Las Vegas local official has been arrested for the killing of an investigative journalist who had been reporting on him, sheriff says

“This is a terrible and jarring homicide that has deeply impacted Las Vegas. Every murder is tragic but the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome,” Lombardo said in a news conference Thursday, offering his condolences to German’s family, friends and colleagues at the Review-Journal.

“We are … outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official. Journalists can’t do the important work our communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to violent retribution,” the newspaper’s executive editor, Glenn Cook, said Wednesday in a statement.

Telles has a court appearance scheduled for Thursday afternoon, online Clark County Jail records show. CNN has reached out to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department and to Telles’ office and is working to determine his legal representation.

German was discovered outside his home Saturday morning, though police believe the killing occurred a day prior.

According to LVMPD Homicide and Sex Crimes Bureau Captain Dori Koren, the suspect approached German’s home on Friday and went to the side of the house. German came outside soon after and went to the side of the home, where, Koren said Thursday, investigators believe an altercation occurred and German was stabbed multiple times.

Telles, who lost reelection in June, was identified as a person of interest early in the investigation, as authorities discovered neighborhood surveillance footage capturing a vehicle seen at Telles’ house before and after German’s killing, Koren said. The vehicle, registered to Telles’ wife, was also seen at German’s house at the time of his death.

“We ultimately developed video evidence to show that the vehicle, the GMC Denali parked in front of Telles’ home departed around 9 a.m. in the morning on the day of the murder, and returned around 12 p.m. just after the murder, which matched our timeline,” Koren said.

Surveillance footage released over the weekend showed a suspect wearing a straw hat and orange shirt, and investigators found a matching hat during a search of Telles’ home. The hat had been cut, Koren said, as if in an effort to conceal evidence.

Investigators also discovered blood on a pair of shoes that had been cut, “likely in a manner to try to destroy evidence,” Koren said. In addition, Telles’ DNA matched DNA found at the crime scene, he said.

Once the positive DNA result came in, authorities’ goal was to take Telles into custody as “safely as possible.”

“We were able to successfully execute that operation yesterday and Telles was taken into custody safely,” Koren said, though he acknowledged Telles was seen on a stretcher after suffering “self-inflicted” wounds. He would not describe the wounds but said they were not life-threatening.

Arrest is both a ‘relief’ and an ‘outrage’ for victim’s newsroom

German has been praised by those who knew him or his work as a consummate reporter who spent decades working in Las Vegas, reporting on everything from organized crime to corrupt government agencies to the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival — the deadliest in modern US history.
He was working on a story about Telles the week he was killed, according to the Review-Journal. Earlier this year, Telles was the subject of articles that detailed his oversight of his office, and German reported Telles created a hostile work environment and carried on an inappropriate relationship with a staffer.

Telles denied the reports, the Review-Journal said. First elected to the office in 2018, Telles lost his bid for reelection in a June Democratic primary.

Prior to German’s death, Telles published several online posts detailing his issues with the journalist’s reporting, including on his campaign’s website and in a letter to German, in which he called the allegations “false” and insisted the reporter was trying “to drag me through the mud.”

Telles also stated that he sought legal counsel in an effort to seek legal action against the newspaper but ultimately came to the conclusion that “suing a newspaper, like the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is near impossible.”

Telles also posted several tweets regarding German and his reporting.

“Looking forward to lying smear piece #4 by @JGermanRJ. #onetrickpony I think he’s mad that I haven’t crawled into a hole and died,” read a June 18 tweet, in part.
A few days later, Telles tweeted, “Typical bully. Can’t take a pound of critism (sic) after slinging 100 pounds of BS. Up to article #4 now. You’d think he’d have better things to do.”

In his own statement Wednesday, Cook, the newspaper editor, said Telles’ arrest was “at once an enormous relief and an outrage or the Review-Journal newsroom.”

“We thank Las Vegas police for their urgency and hard work and for immediately recognizing the terrible significance of Jeff’s killing. Now, hopefully, the Review-Journal, the German family and Jeff’s many friends can begin the process of mourning and honoring a great man and a brave reporter. Godspeed, Jeff.”

Killings of journalists are rare in the United States, and murders of journalists in retaliation for their work even more so, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Eight journalists have been murdered in the US since 1992, when the non-profit began keeping track, including four in a mass shooting in 2018 in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland, it said.
“Las Vegas police have acted quickly in identifying and arresting a suspect in the fatal stabbing of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German,” Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Thursday in a statement. “Authorities should ensure that all those involved in this terrible crime are identified and held to account, and should make clear that those who target journalists will face justice.”

Rebecca Aguilar, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said German’s killing was a “reminder that everyday journalists around the world put their lives on the line to uncover the truth.”

“As the Review-Journal reported, many described Jeff as a fearless reporter, the embodiment of the First Amendment, who stood up for society’s underdogs and had a strong sense of right and wrong,” Aguilar said in a statement. “We should honor Jeff by continuing to be like him, a person of courage, compassion and commitment to the truth.”

Victim’s colleagues were instrumental in investigation

Early on, authorities were focused on making sure German’s death wasn’t linked to a burglary in addition to “looking at any work-related grievances or conflicts” related to his reporting, Koren said.

“We knew that as an investigative reporter he had written several articles and there were different allegations and statements about potential people that would be upset about it,” he said.

The Review-Journal was instrumental in providing information that helped investigators, Lombardo said Thursday, particularly in outlining what “cases” German “was working previously and currently.”

German’s death was “troublesome,” Lombardo said Thursday.

“We expect journalism to be open and transparent and watchdog for government. And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important that we put all eyes on it and address the case appropriately,” he said, “such as we did in this case, with this expediency associated with it.”

Coworkers of German reviewing Google Maps noted in Telles’ driveway a maroon SUV similar in look to the photo released by authorities, said Arthur Kane, a reporter for the Review-Journal who’d worked with German.

“The police came down and roped off the area, started searching his house,” Kane told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday. The SUV was the one registered to Telles’ wife, Kane said, and the vehicle was taken away by investigators.

In the meantime, the investigation remains ongoing, Lombardo said Thursday, and authorities are still following up on “several leads” to “put to bed other allegations.”

CNN’s Paradise Afshar, Carroll Alvarado, Amir Vera, Jamiel Lynch, Nick Watt, Elizabeth Joseph, Hannah Sarisohn and Satyam Kaswala contributed to this report.



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Oxford High School shooting: Michigan school shooting suspect and his parents under suicide watch, sheriff says

Staff at the Oakland County Jail facility in Pontiac are checking on the three “multiple times an hour,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a press conference Saturday.

The three are not able to communicate with each other in the jail, Bouchard said, and he did not believe Ethan Crumbley had been informed of his parents being charged and arrested.

“He wouldn’t have been made aware that we were searching for his parents since he’s in isolation, and it’s not like we have a TV clicker in his hands,” Bouchard said Saturday.

None of the Crumbleys have communicated with his staff and there is “nothing to lead us to believe that anybody has any mental health challenges so far based on records or information we’ve uncovered,” he said.

Ethan Crumbley was charged as an adult Wednesday with terrorism, first degree murder and other counts in the shooting that killed Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. In court Wednesday, a defense attorney submitted a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
James and Jennifer Crumbley have pleaded not guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charges, which were brought forth as prosecutors alleged they provided unrestricted access to the gun Ethan Crumbley is accused of using.

Attorneys for the parents maintain they intended to turn themselves in to authorities before their arrest inside an industrial building in nearby Detroit.

“We intend to fight this case in the courtroom and not in the court of public opinion. We know that in the end the entire story and truth will prevail,” the defendants’ attorneys said.

“They appeared to be hiding in the building,” Detroit Police Chief James White said during a news conference early Saturday. They were “very distressed” after they were detained, the chief said.

White said he did not know the Crumbleys’ intentions, but added, “this isn’t indicative of turning themselves in, hiding in a warehouse.”

Man helped Crumbley parents into his workspace

A man who police say assisted the Crumbleys get into the Detroit building where they were found has come forward and is cooperating with authorities, the man’s attorney said.

Andrzej Sikora, 65, knew the Crumbleys were using his workspace, but he “did not really know what was going on” and didn’t know the couple “had active warrants” when they were discovered and subsequently arrested, attorney Clarence Dass told CNN Sunday.

Sikora “got roped into it,” Dass said, but declined to say why he allowed the couple to stay in the workspace or provide additional details on their relationship other than to say “he knew them, but not well.”

Surveillance footage showed an individual guiding the Crumbleys as they parked their vehicle in the back of the building during daylight hours, a law enforcement official told CNN.

Dass told CNN his client was at the workspace for “a short period of time,” but was not there late Friday evening and the overnight hours when the Crumbleys were arrested, adding he didn’t realize the Crumbleys were in his space for “that long.”

Sikora “has been an upstanding citizen his entire life. An immigrant from Poland, he has dedicated his adult life to the arts and metro Detroit community,” Dass said in a press release Sunday afternoon, adding Sikora contacted authorities to provide information upon learning of the Crumbleys’ arrest.

Sheriff Bouchard said Saturday law enforcement is gathering information and would present it to the county prosecutor for potential charges. As of early Monday, Sikora has not been charged with any crimes.

Superintendent calls for third-party investigation

Oxford Community Schools in Michigan has requested an independent third-party investigation of Tuesday’s shooting at Oxford High School, Superintendent Tim Throne said in a letter addressed to the Oxford school community Saturday.
Throne provided details on “the school’s version of events” in the letter, highlighting shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley’s movements leading up to and during the shooting.

Tuesday morning, after a teacher alerted school counselors and the Dean of students about concerning drawings and written statements made by the suspect, he was “immediately removed from the classroom” and taken to a guidance counselor’s office, Throne explained in the letter. A day earlier, the student was discovered viewing images of ammunition on his cell phone during class and said it was for his family’s shooting hobby, the letter said.

The suspect told a school counselor the drawing was for a video game he was designing, Throne said. Guidance counselors monitored the student in their office as they unsuccessfully tried to reach his parents for an hour and a half, the letter said.

After the parents were contacted and arrived, counselors asked questions about the student’s capacity for harm, and the family’s answers “led counselors to again conclude he did not intend on committing either self-harm or harm to others,” the letter said.

School counselors told the parents they had 48 hours to seek counseling for their son, otherwise the school would have to contact Child Protective Services, the letter reads. When asked to take their child home for the rest of the day, Throne said the student’s parents “flatly refused,” leaving their son behind to “return to work.”

Because he had no prior disciplinary actions on his record, school counselors decided to allow him to return to his class rather than send him to what they thought would be an empty home, Throne said, adding the decision was not shared with the principal or assistant principal.

The suspect starting firing his gun “during passing time between classes when hundreds of students were in the hallway transitioning from one classroom to the other” later that morning, Throne said, and it is unclear to him if the gun was in the student’s backpack during their meeting.

“Before the shooter was able to walk a short distance to enter the main hallway, students and staff had already entered classrooms, locked doors, erected makeshift barricades and locked down or fled according to their training,” Throne said. “The suspect was not able to gain access to a single classroom.”

An initial review of videos of the shooting showed “staff and students’ response to the shooter was efficient, exemplary and definitely prevented further deaths and injuries,” the superintendent said.

An independent security consultant has been requested to review the district’s safety procedures and practices carried out by teachers and staff during Tuesday’s shooting, Throne said.

CNN’s Sonia Moghe, Shimon Prokupecz, Carolyn Sung, Elizabeth Joseph, Brian Vitagliano, Mark Morales, Jason Hanna, Aya Elamroussi and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.

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