Suspect in Florida TV crew attack faces more murder charges

By FREIDA FRISARO
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A 19-year-old Florida man is now facing three first-degree-murder charges related to a shooting last week that killed a television news reporter, a 9-year-old girl and a 38-year-old woman, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

Orange County Sheriff’s officials released an arrest warrant Tuesday morning that included two new murder charges against Keith Melvin Moses in the attack in an Orlando neighborhood last Wednesday.

Investigators said Moses fatally shot Nathacha Augustin seconds after the car she was riding in stopped to offer him a ride. A witness in the car described Moses as “acting strange” and sweating before the shooting.

Moses ran after the shooting and hours later returned to the scene while television crews were working on a story about the shooting, authorities said.

Investigators said Moses first went into a nearby house, where he shot T’yonna Major, a young gymnast, and her mother. The mother told investigators she woke up to her daughter yelling, “he shot me,” as she ran and jumped on her bed, the warrant said. She said the man then shot her in the arm. She told investigators she barricaded herself and her daughter in the master bedroom until deputies arrived.

She said T’Yonna described the suspect and said he had come through the rear door to the home, the warrant said. The mother said she normally kept the doors locked but sometimes left them unlocked after letting the dog out.

T’Yonna died at a hospital a short time after the shooting.

After leaving the Major’s house, the suspect walked to the vehicle belonging to the Spectrum News 13 crew, where he fatally shot reporter Dylan Lyons and critically wounded video journalist Jesse Walden.

Deputies responded to the scene after getting 911 calls from both locations.

Investigators talked to a reporter and videographer from WFTV, another news station that was covering the story of the initial killing.

They told deputies the man had been walking toward them with a gun and they were able to video him as he left the scene. They called 911 and then made their way to the Spectrum News 13 vehicle, where they saw Lyons and Walden had been shot, the warrant said.

Deputies found Moses a short distance from the area within minutes. They said he was sweating as he walked toward them. They found a Glock .40-caliber handgun in his pants which they noted was still hot to the touch, meaning it had been fired recently.

The warrant said a witness was able to identify Moses through a photo lineup.

The warrant noted the gun’s slide was in the locked position and the magazine was still inserted, which is consistent with the firearm being shot “until it ran out of ammunition and the slide locking to the rear.”

Moses was taken to a hospital where he was evaluated, but the warrant said he did not communicate with deputies or the hospital staff but made facial expressions, such as smiling. At times he “made hand symbols of guns as he pointed the gun at his head,” the warrant said.

Once at the sheriff’s office, he continued refusing to speak with investigators, pretending to be asleep. He tried to leave the interview room twice and when deputies grabbed his arms and tried to subdue him after he got out of the room, he screamed continuously, “I can’t breathe.”

The Office of the Public Defender for Orange and Osceola counties is representing Moses and has declined to comment. Moses waived the right to be in court during a first appearance hearing Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the Orange County Jail.