Orlando TV Reporter Becomes Latest Journalist Killed in United States While Working – NBC 6 South Florida
Wednesday’s shooting in an Orlando neighborhood that killed a 20-year-old woman, a young child and a TV news reporter is the latest incident of a journalist who lost his life on duty.
Spectrum News 13 identified the reporter who lost his life as Dylan Lyons. Another injured crew member is identified as photojournalist Jesse Walden and is listed as seriously injured, according to a report on the television network’s website.
Lyons and Walden were reporting from the scene of an earlier shooting when they were shot dead by the suspect in the first shooting, authorities said.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and the other lives taken senselessly today. Our thoughts are with our employee’s family, friends and colleagues at this very difficult time. We remain hopeful that our other injured colleague 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 have arrested 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses, who they believe is responsible for both Orlando-area shootings. The child’s mother was also injured in the shooting.
NBC 6’s Niko Clemmons has the latest after a central Florida television journalist and a little girl were fatally shot Wednesday afternoon near the scene of a deadly shooting earlier in the day, authorities said.
“I want to acknowledge what a terrible day this has been for our community and our media partners,” Mina told a roomful of reporters. “I work closely with all of you and I know many of you and I know the very difficult work you are doing and also the very important work you are doing for our community and law enforcement. No one in our community — not a mother, not a 9-year-old, and certainly not a news professional — should be a 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 in the state of Florida to be killed while on the job.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 17 journalists, including Lyons, have been killed in the United States since 1992. Lyons is the first television journalist to be killed since 2015, when reporter Allison Parker and photographer Adam Ward of WDBJ-TV were killed in a shooting in Roanoke, Virginia.
Lyons is the first Florida journalist to be killed since Dona St. Plite, a Miami radio personality and supporter of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was shot dead outside Miami Edison High School on October 24, 1993.