ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Deputies released a body-cam video on Thursday showing deputies arresting a 19-year-old man who had shot and killed a woman before shooting four others Wednesday in Pine Hills, an Orange County community northwest of Orlando, according to deputies.
A man called 911 to report that he had picked up his cousin, Keith Melvin Moses, who “seemed down” when he sat in the back seat and without warning, fatally shot Nathacha Augustin, 38, at about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office told reporters.
Sheriff John Mina said Moses then fired his gun again at about 4:05 p.m., and killed Dylan Lyons, 24, a Spectrum News 13 reporter in an unmarked news vehicle on Hialeah Street, and T’yonna Major, 9, a third-grade Pine Hills Elementary School student, at her home on Harrington Street.
“This was not gang-related,” Mina said during a news conference on Thursday, at the Faith Christian Center, a church in Pine Hills.
Mina said the two injured victims were T’yonna’s mother, and Jesse Walden, a Spectrum News 13 photojournalist. Mina said it’s likely that Moses did not know any of the victims. Walden, 29, who remained hospitalized on Thursday, released a statement on Facebook.
“I lost one of my best friends, Dylan yesterday. I was shot and now I have had surgery and I am OK,” Walden wrote later adding, “I am very lucky to be alive.”
Mina said “brave” WFTV crews, who were also covering Augustin’s murder, witnessed the shooting that killed Lyons and injured Walden and rushed to help them. Mina said Moses was in possession of a Glock 40, a 10mm gun also known as a G40, when deputies arrested him.
“We are still trying to track down how he obtained this firearm,” Mina said about Moses’s semiautomatic pistol, which “was still hot to the touch, meaning it had just been fired, and there were no more rounds.”
Deputies suspected Moses was under the influence of a substance because of his behavior and how his pupils were dilated, Mina said. After his arrest, he told deputies that he was hurt and while at the hospital attacked medical staff, according to Mina.
After reporters’ questions about Moses’s state, Mina said mental health is a “huge issue” across the country, but “that doesn’t mean you go out and you start randomly shooting people.”
Detectives reported Moses has “a lengthy criminal history,” including at least eight felony and 11 misdemeanor arrests. The charges included possession of a firearm by a minor and robbery with a deadly weapon.
Orange County State Attorney Monique H. Worrell told reporters on Thursday that she could not discuss the specifics of Moses’s juvenile record.
“This individual’s only adult offense was a possession of marijuana (charge),” Worrell said, adding that the quantity was so low that prosecutors decided to drop the case.
Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings, who was also at the news conference, said the majority of perpetrators of gun violence in the area were young adults.
Lyons was born in Philadelphia and he would have celebrated his 25th birthday in March. After he graduated from the University of Central Florida, he reported for WCBJ-TV in Gainesville, and he had been reporting for Spectrum News 13 since July.
“He was an acting father to his niece and nephew who he loved so much. He loved his fiancé,” Lyon’s sister Rachel Lyons wrote on a GoFundMe fundraiser to cover the cost of his funeral.
Spectrum News 13 released the following statement: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and the other lives senselessly taken today. This is a terrible tragedy for the Orlando community.”
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, also released a statement.
“Our hearts go out to the family of the journalist killed today and the crew member injured in Orange County, Florida, as well as the whole Spectrum News team,” Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter.
Moses, who is being held without bond at the Orange County jail, is facing a charge of first-degree murder. Mina said Orange County prosecutors are preparing to charge him for the other two murders and two attempted murders. Authorities did not release the identity of T’yonna’s mother.
Watch the police body-cam video of the man’s arrest (Warning: Expletives)
Watch the 4 p.m. report
Watch the 12 p.m. report
Thursday morning report
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