The family of a young reporter who was sent to cover a homicide scene and then killed by the suspect is now suing his employer.
Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons and cameraman Jesse Walden were reporting on the murder of 38-year-old Nathacha Augustin in Orlando, Florida, on February 22, 2023, when the suspect, Keith Moses, allegedly shot at them.
Earlier that day, Moses got in a car with Augustin and another man in Orlando. There, Moses fatally shot Augustin, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in an arrest affidavit, the Miami Herald reports.
Broadcast journalist Lyons, 24, and his colleague were sent to cover the story and Moses was still at large.
Moses returned to the crime scene and allegedly ambushed the Spectrum News journalists, fatally shooting Lyons and wounding Walden. The suspect then broke into a nearby home and killed a nine-year-old girl, wounding her mother, police said.
Moses has pleaded not guilty to the murders.
The family of Lyons is now suing the parent company of Spectrum News and Charter Communications, accusing them of sending the reporter to the scene without security or protective gear even though they knew the suspect was still at large.
The lawsuit said that Lyons, born and raised in Philadelphia, died because of his employer’s negligence.
Spectrum News owes it to employees “to conduct an appropriate risk assessment on potential news coverage assignments to ensure the safety and security of news reporters and staff before assigning coverage of active incidents,” the lawsuit said.
In a statement, Spectrum News said the murder was “an unforeseeable and horrible tragedy” but that the family’s claims were “unfounded.”
“We hope that Keith Moses, who has been charged, will soon be brought to justice for the murder of Dylan and the others that day,” the statement said. “With regards to these specific allegations, Dylan was the victim of a senseless act of violence. The claims against Spectrum News are unfounded and we will seek to have them dismissed.”
Moses is due to stand trial in September and faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and burglary.
The State Attorney’s office has said it will seek the death penalty, Spectrum News said.
Lyons’s sister, Rachel Lyons, said her younger brother died “while doing what he so loved.”
“He was a reporter for Spectrum news, his dream job, and while doing what he so loved, was ambushed and murdered while covering a story in Orlando, Florida,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page.
Colleagues also paid tribute to Lyons. “He took his job very seriously,” remembered his friend Josh Miller, a sports reporter with the network.
“He loved his career. He loved what he did. He loved the community, telling the stories of people, reporting on the news, and he was just passionate about what he did.
“When he was out of the news station, he was still talking about how much he wanted to succeed.”
