Florida gunman killed woman, returned later and fatally shot journalist and child, authorities say

A Florida man who fatally shot a woman on Wednesday morning returned to the scene several hours later, officials said, and opened fire on two TV journalists who were covering the initial homicide before fleeing to a nearby home and shooting a 9-year-old girl and her mother.

Both the young girl and one of the journalists, who worked at Spectrum News 13 in Orlando, died from their injuries, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a news conference. The other journalist and the girl’s mother, Mina said, remained in the hospital in critical condition Wednesday evening.

“I want to acknowledge what a horrible day this has been for our community,” Mina said. “No one in our community — not a mother, not a 9-year-old, certainly not a news professional — should become the victim of gun violence.”

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Homicide detectives are still investigating whether the suspected gunman, Keith Melvin Moses, 19, knew that the News 13 employees were journalists, Mina said, adding that the vehicle they were in didn’t “really look like a news vehicle to me.”

After shooting the journalists, Mina said, the gunman fled about a block to a home where he barged inside and shot the mother and child. Authorities believe that the gunman’s first victim from Wednesday morning — a 20-year-old woman — was an acquaintance, but say they don’t think he has any connection to the other four victims.

“It’s unclear,” Mina said, “why exactly they were targeted.”

During their Wednesday night broadcast, the Spectrum News 13 anchors addressed the shooting, saying they’d decided not to identify the victims — their colleagues — out of respect for their families.

“This is something that plays out in our country every single day, and there are days when it hits extremely close to home,” one anchor said. “Today was one of those days.”