A TV reporter and a nine-year-old girl were both shot and killed near Orlando, Florida, near where a murder happened a few hours earlier.
Police say that the same gunman, who is also thought to have killed the other person, shot and hurt a second reporter and the girl’s mother.
Police say the teen suspect came back while the two Spectrum News 13 reporters were covering the killing of a woman in the area that morning.
It’s not clear if they were meant to be hurt.
Investigators said that the suspect was armed when he was caught and was not helping the police.
Spectrum News 13 named the reporter who was killed as 24-year-old Dylan Lyons. The photojournalist who was hurt was Jesse Walden.
The names of the other two people killed in the two attacks on Wednesday in Pine Hills, a suburb west of Orlando, have not been released yet.
This is 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses, the suspect in a series of shootings today that left three dead, in OCSO custody. This is a sad day for our community. Three were murdered today, including a woman in her 20s, a 9-year-old girl and a @MyNews13 employee. pic.twitter.com/DXXkxzRHl5
— Orange County Sheriff's Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) February 23, 2023
At a news conference, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said the journalists were attacked around 16:00 local time while they were “in or near their vehicle,” which did not look like a TV station’s official vehicle (22:00 GMT).
He said that the reporters were talking about a shooting that happened earlier in the day around 11:00 local time. A woman in her 20s was shot and killed inside a car. The suspect came back to the scene of the crime and started shooting.
The sheriff said that after shooting at the journalists, the suspect, 19-year-old Keith Moses, went into a nearby home and shot a girl and her mother.
He also said that the mother was in the hospital and in very bad shape. Local reporters say that other journalists in the area helped give first aid to the victims. Spectrum 13 kept reporting live even after they heard that one of their reporters had died.
Greg Angel, a newsreader for the station, said that the injured journalist had “been able to talk with investigators and colleagues.”
Mr. Mina said that the suspect “has a long criminal record, including charges of burglary, grand theft, aggravated battery, and assault with a deadly weapon.”
He said that he knew the woman who was shot in the morning, but that he didn’t know the reporters or the mother and child.
When asked if the shooter might have chosen the reporters on purpose, Mr. Mina said, “That’s something we’ll look into.”
He also said that the suspect might have thought the journalists were police.
A reporter for Orlando TV station WESH 2 said that she and her camera operator had just left the crime scene moments before the shooting.
Senait Gebregiorgis said, “We had a gut feeling” that they should leave for their own safety, so they did.
The TV station’s owner, Charter Communications, said in a statement that the attack was “a terrible tragedy for the Orlando community.”
The company said, “We are very sad about the loss of our colleague and the other lives that were taken for no reason today.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted condolences, saying, “Our hearts go out to the family of the journalist who was killed today and the crew member who was hurt in Orange County, Florida, as well as the whole Spectrum News team.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that 40 journalists were killed in 2022. Only one of the people who died was in the U.S.