9-year-old girl, TV news staffer among 3 killed in Orlando shootings
A 9-year-old girl and a local TV news journalist were among three people killed and two others wounded in shootings in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, authorities said.
Keith Melvin Moses, 19, has been arrested in connection with the shootings, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said in a news conference. Moses is expected to be charged in the shootings, Mina said.
Moses allegedly shot and killed a woman in her 20s on Wednesday morning, Mina said, and police were called later in the day to two additional shootings near the scene.
At one home, a 9-year-old child and her mother were shot, Mina said, while at another scene nearby, staffers from Spectrum News 13 who were covering the previous shooting were shot near their vehicle.
Mina said the deadly rampage began at 11 a.m. local time when deputies responded to a shooting and discovered a woman in her 20s who had been fatally shot.
Moses was an acquaintance of that victim, he said. Then, shortly after 4 p.m., deputies received another call regarding two additional shootings near one another.
In one location, deputies located a reporter and photographer for Spectrum News 13 — who were on the scene to cover the homicide which had occurred Wednesday morning — shot in or near their news vehicle, Mina said.
Mina said it is unclear why the Spectrum News 13 crew members were targeted, or if the suspect even knew whether or not they were media members, because the news vehicle wasn’t obvious.
After being taken to a hospital, one of the News 13 employees died from their injuries, Mina said. Spectrum News 13 said on its website that they were not yet releasing any information on the journalists who were involved in the shooting.
Authorities also discovered a woman and her 9-year-old daughter inside a nearby home who had been shot. Mina said the 9-year-old child died while her mother was continuing to “fight for her life.”
“It is unclear why the suspect entered that home,” Mina said. The sheriff said they didn’t yet know if the suspect had any connection to the news crew, or the mother and daughter.
Mina said that Moses has a lengthy criminal history that includes gun charges and charges for aggravated battery and assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and grand theft.
