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Dylan Lyons and Keith Moses (Orange County Sheriff’s Office).
The family of a murdered reporter is suing his employer, saying the company put victim Dylan Lyons in harm’s way during a shooting spree and did it without giving him proper training for active shooter situations.
Spectrum News 13 — parent company Charter Communications — had Lyons and photojournalist Jesse Walden cover an at-large shooter who killed Nathacha Augustin, 38, the newly released lawsuit said. They went to the scene of the crime. The suspect Keith Moses, 21, returned and ambushed the men, according to deputies in Orange County, Florida. Lyons died. Walden survived in critical condition.
Right before shooting the men, Moses had forced his way into a home in which he shot both a mother and her 9-year-old daughter, T’Yonna Major, the lawsuit said. T’Yonna died.
Nathacha Augustin and T’Yonna Major (Orange County Sheriff’s Office).
The murder case against Moses is ongoing.
Lyons’ father, Gary Lyons’, handles his estate and is suing on his behalf. The complaint alleges that Charter Communications sent reporters into harm’s way “without appropriate security measures, choices, or proper consideration of their well-being.”
“Defendant SPECTRUM employs news reporters and videographers, such as Plaintiff LYONS, to go to active crime scenes involving violence and provide coverage,” they wrote. “However, although Defendant SPECTRUM requires travel to high-crime areas, Defendant SPECTRUM does not provide said reporters and videographers with any personal protection measures or security personnel.”
The complaint asserts negligence, virtual certainty, concealed danger, and gross negligence.
“At all times material hereto, Defendant SPECTRUM had a non-delegable duty to provide sufficient and reoccurring journalism safety training to Plaintiff LYONS and other reasonably foreseeable persons associated with their employment as news reporters reporting on active news events in the public,” they wrote.
NeJame Law, the firm representing the Lyons family, also promised to sue the Orange County Sheriff’s Office next week in connection to the same shooting spree.
Charter Communications and the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.