Injured Florida photojournalist says he’s ‘glad’ to be alive
A person sits in front of the pop-up memorial for slain Spectrum News 13 journalist Dylan Lyons at the University of Central Florida Nicholson School of Communications in Orlando, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. Lyons, a graduate of UCF, was shot and killed while covering a homicide in Orlando on Wednesday. (Joe Burbank /Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Testing on staging11
(NewsNation) — Spectrum News 13 photojournalist Jesse Walden’s condition improved Friday as he was listed in “good condition” following an incident that left his co-worker and a 9-year-old girl dead at the scene of a shooting in Orlando on Wednesday.
In a video posted to his Instagram story, Walden said his surgery went well and that he was “OK” and that he was “very glad (he’s) alive.”
On Wednesday, Walden and fellow journalist Dylan Lyons were covering the fatal shooting of 38-year-old Nathacha Augustin when a 19-year-old suspect — identified later as Keith Melvin Moses — allegedly attacked them, killing Lyons and a 9-year-old girl.
Deputies say Moses committed the first crime and later returned to the scene. He allegedly first shot the news crew and then went into a neighboring house and fatally shot the girl and injured her mother.
At last check, the girl’s mother was still in critical condition and was recovering in the hospital.
A GoFundMe is raising money for the 9-year-old’s funeral costs, describing the third-grader as “a light to anyone who knew her” and “an amazing gymnast.”