Just hours after investigators searched the official’s home, a Nevada county official was arrested in connection with the killing of a Las Vegas journalist who wrote a series of unflattering stories about him.
A suspect in the stabbing of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was taken into custody Wednesday evening, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Police have not yet publicly named the suspect in German’s death.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and The New York Times, officials identified the suspect as Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles.
Telles was arrested on suspicion of murder, according to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, and the county’s district attorney, Steven B. Wolfson, according to The New York Times. According to jail records obtained by NBC News, Telles, 45, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of murder. His first court date was set for Thursday afternoon.
German, who had written articles about a hostile work environment in Telles’ office as well as an alleged inappropriate relationship with a staffer, was stabbed to death outside his home on Saturday.
Police said they believed German was killed on Friday during an altercation.
“The arrest of Robert Telles is both a relief and an outrage for the Review-Journal newsroom,” Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook told NBC News.
“We are relieved that Robert Telles has been apprehended, but we are outraged that a colleague appears to have been murdered for reporting on an elected official. Journalists cannot do the important work that our communities require if they are afraid that presenting facts will result in violent retaliation.”
Telles was arrested just hours after police raided his home on Wednesday. After the initial search, Telles arrived at his home Wednesday afternoon wearing a white hazmat suit.
Telles was wheeled away on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance after police returned to the residence in full tactical gear, according to video footage. Police released surveillance footage of a potential suspect in the area prior to German’s killing, wearing a straw hat, bright orange reflective jacket, and black gloves, as well as a photo of a red GMC Yukon, which was thought to be the suspect’s vehicle, on Tuesday.
During the search on Wednesday, authorities towed a red SUV from Telles’ driveway.
Telles could not be reached for comment immediately Thursday, and the Clark County Administrator’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from TODAY.
Telles was defeated for re-election earlier this year as a result of a series of investigative stories published in the Review-Journal. According to the Review-Journal Telles had repeatedly slammed German on Twitter, calling him a “bully” and claiming German was “mad that I haven’t crawled into a hole and died.”
According to the Review-Journal Prior to Telles’ death, German was working on a possible follow-up story about him and had recently filed public records requests for emails and text messages between Telles and three other county officials.
German, 69, was a journalist in Las Vegas for 40 years before joining the Review-Journal in 2010.
