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Reno News & Review editor D. Brian Burghart has stepped down to devote full time to a project, Fatal Encounters, that has generated national attention in recent years.
The site is a national database of police killings and was started when nothing like it existed. Fatal Encounters gained considerable traction with the Ferguson, Mo., shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.
Burghart made appearances on CNN and The Daily Show, among others, when national news media recognized the holes in their own reporting on fatal encounters with police.
The Reno News & Review stories he produced in connection with the Fatal Encounters project won numerous awards from Nevada Press Association judges for the 2015 contest for the best of journalism in the state, including Story of the Year.
Burghart left the weekly newspaper last week after more than 20 years, starting when it was known as the Nevada Weekly.
In a final column as editor, he notes that he was trying to juggle two full-time tasks as well as completing two master’s degrees in recent years. It was good as long as he could keep up the pace.
“But I’ll tell you what,” he wrote. “All that heat melted the wax in my wings, and I’m burned out. So I’m going to take a break. You’ll laugh to know when I say I’m taking a break, I’m cutting back to one job and finishing my second master’s.”
