The shootings Wednesday in an Orlando neighborhood that claimed the lives of a 20-year-old woman, a young child and a TV news reporter are the latest incident of a journalist who lost their life while on duty.
Spectrum News 13 identified the reporter who lost his life as Dylan Lyons. Another crew member injured is identified as photojournalist Jesse Walden and he was listed as critically injured, according to a story on the TV station’s website.
Lyons and Walden had been reporting from the scene of an earlier shooting when they were shot by the suspect in the first shooting, authorities said.
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“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and the other lives senselessly taken today. Our thoughts are with our employee’s family, friends and co-workers during this very difficult time. We remain hopeful that our other colleague who was injured makes a full recovery," Spectrum News said in a statement. “This is a terrible tragedy for the Orlando community."
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a news conference Wednesday that they’ve detained 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses, who they believe is responsible for both shootings in the Orlando-area neighborhood. The child's mother was also injured in the shooting.
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“I want to acknowledge what a horrible day this has been for our community and our media partners,” Mina told a room full of reporters. “I work closely with all of you and know many of you and know the very difficult job that you do and also the very important job that you do for our community and for law enforcement. No one in our community — not a mother, not a 9-year-old and certainly not news professionals — should become the victim of gun violence in our community.”
Lyons, a Philadelphia native who graduated from the University of Central Florida and later worked in Gainesville before moving to Orlando, is believed to be the first television reporter killed in the state of Florida while on the job.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports 17 journalists, including Lyons, have been killed in the United States since 1992. Lyons is the first TV journalist to be killed since 2015, when reporter Allison Parker and photographer Adam Ward of WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Virginia were killed in a shooting.
Lyons is the first Florida journalist to be killed since Dona St. Plite, a radio personality in Miami and supporter of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was shot to death outside Miami Edison High School on October 24, 1993.
