American TV journalist and 9 year old child shot dead at scene of mass shooting in Florida

The suspect has been identified as Keith Melvin Moses, and he has been formally charged with the murder of the first victim. Additional charges relating to the other four victims are set to follow.

By Edward Era Barbacena

Four people were shot, two of of them fatally, at a homicide crime scene outside of Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, according to police.

The victims included a nine-year-old girl and an Orlando-based TV journalist who was producing a story about a woman who was found shot dead at the location in Pine Hills earlier in the day.

“I want to acknowledge what a horrible day this has been for our community and our media partners,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Spectrum News 13 said on Wednesday it was not yet releasing the names of its personnel wounded and killed in the violence.

Another media member covering the scene was critically injured, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The mother of the child was also shot and injured.

A suspect, 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses, is in custody, the sheriffs said.

The gunman allegedly walked up to a Spectrum News 13 vehicle just after 4pm and shot inside, hitting a reporter and a photographer, then went into a nearby home and began firing inside, killing the girl and wounding her mother, the sheriff said.

“So, the suspect is not saying much right now,” Mr Mina said. “It is unclear if he knew they were news media or not. We’re still trying to work all that out.”

Police arrested the 19-year-old near the scene and found a handgun believed to have been used in the shooting.

Earlier in the day, a woman in her 20s was found shot dead in her vehicle in the location where the later shootings took place.

Mr Moses has been charged with murder in the first shooting, and is expected to be charged in the later killings as well, according to the sheriff.

It is unclear if Mr Moses has legal representation or how he will plead.

Mr Moses has previously been arrested for motor vehicle theft, domestic violence battery, obstructing law enforcement, resisting arrest, burglary, failure to appear in court, grand theft, and probation violations, according to records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

The White House offered its condolences on Wednesday.

Gun safety campaigner Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland school massacre in 2018, wrote on Twitter: “I am speechless. Reporters in Orlando, FL are shot while covering a shooting. One has died. Also happening in Florida today, the ongoing effort to pass permitless carry and ensuring that this will happen again.”

“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,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter.