Three weeks after Victor Saganitso was found fatally stabbed on the Moapa River Indian Reservation, his family and friends gathered at the FBI's Las Vegas field office Saturday to demand transparency in the investigation. The 20-year-old father died Oct. 17 after being found lying in the street with a stab wound to the chest, according to the Clark County coroner's office. The reservation sits roughly 40 miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas.
Protesters chanted Saganitso's name and expressed frustration over what they described as a lack of communication from investigators. "It's been three weeks, and I know it takes time, but you know we just want them to say this is not going to be swept under the rug and we're going to keep on this because it happened here," said Verdie Marble, Saganitso's grandmother. "He was a Native boy, he was a Paiute boy, he was a Mojave boy and he was a Navajo boy. We just want to know that they're standing right behind us."
Marble described her grandson as "a loving boy" and father who "would give a shirt off his back to anybody that needed it." Kiara Fields, the mother of Saganitso's daughter Alaia, said his death was unfair and that he had so much more life to live. "He and my child are very close, like extremely close. That's his lifeline, and it's just not fair that she has to go through her life without her father because some ignorant person felt the need to take his life away," Fields said.
The Moapa River Police Department previously confirmed the FBI is leading the investigation. FBI spokesperson Sandra Breault confirmed the bureau's involvement but declined to provide further details, citing the active investigation. Family members said they have been told multiple witnesses and cameras may have captured the killing, yet they remain without basic information about what happened or why.
Christina Steffen, Fields' mother, said that on the day of Saganitso's funeral, multiple people came forward claiming to have witnessed the incident. "Within the day, there were two other people that walked up and told several people that they saw exactly what happened there with them, and then we heard there were probably at least five more people that said they made statements," Steffen said. "They watched the whole thing, but we still don't even know to this day what the fight was even over. Nobody is saying what happened or why." Fawn Douglas, a member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, attended the protest in support, saying the case affects all Native Americans.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: Las Vegas Review-Journal →
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