(CNN) Investigators are attempting to find out what motivated a string of deadly shootings Wednesday in a neighborhood exterior Orlando, Florida — a spree that killed a 9-year-old woman, a girl and a TV journalist who was covering one of the incidents, authorities stated.
A suspect in the shootings — which additionally injured the woman’s mom and one of the journalist’s colleagues — was arrested Wednesday afternoon, a sheriff’s workplace stated, ending a spate of violence that stretched throughout a number of hours simply west of Orlando.
“No one in our community — not a mother, not a 9-year-old, (and) certainly not news professionals — should become the victim of gun violence in our community,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina stated in a news convention detailing the suspect’s arrest.
“We really don’t know what was in the mind of this suspect,” Mina stated. “Hopefully at some point that he’ll talk to us about what his motives were.”
The suspect, Keith Melvin Moses, 19, is being held on a homicide cost in Wednesday’s first shooting, and is anticipated to be charged in the others, Mina stated.
The first shooting, reported round 11 a.m. Wednesday, killed a girl in her 20s inside a automobile on Hialeah Street in western Orange County. That girl is believed to be an acquaintance of the suspect, Mina stated.
Later in the day, after the automobile had been towed, the gunman returned to the space and shot two Spectrum News 13 journalists — a reporter and a photographer — who have been covering the girl’s killing, Mina stated.
One of the journalists died. The different was in essential situation Wednesday, however was talking and was anticipated to undergo extra therapies at a hospital Wednesday night time, the news station stated, with out naming both.
After the journalists have been shot, the suspect then entered a residence on a close by avenue and shot a mom and her 9-year-old daughter, the sheriff stated. They have been each taken to a hospital, the place the child died and the mom was in essential situation Wednesday night, authorities stated.
“We don’t know why he entered that home,” the sheriff stated.
Investigators are also trying into whether or not the suspect — who the sheriff says has a prolonged prison historical past — knew that the Spectrum News 13 staff have been members of the media.
Officials stated they consider Moses had no connection to the journalists or the mom and her daughter.
The names of these killed and injured weren’t launched by authorities Wednesday.
The scene of a shooting in Orlando, Florida.
‘Every reporter’s completely worst nightmare’
Investigators had shortly recognized Moses as a suspect in the first shooting and have been following leads when the TV journalists have been shot round 4 p.m., the sheriff stated.
The two journalists have been shot in or round their automobile, Mina stated.
“That vehicle was almost exactly in the same spot as the vehicle was from the homicide this morning,” Mina stated. “It’s unclear why exactly they were targeted.”
The journalists’ automobile “didn’t look like a typical news vehicle with a lot of markings on it,” Mina stated.
Spectrum News 13, a CNN affiliate, mourned their slain colleague throughout a newscast Wednesday. It stated it wasn’t but naming the two staff.
“These are people that this afternoon we were having regular conversations here in the newsroom. It was a regular day. And truly not just colleagues, but family members,” anchor Greg Angel stated.
Spectrum News 13 additionally thanked staff of competing news shops for dashing to their colleagues’ assist.
“Some of our competitors … rushed to the aid of our colleagues, and we want them to know how much we appreciate them,” co-anchor Tammie Fields stated. “Because when danger was happening, they could have run the other way. But apparently they ran right over to our crews and helped,”
Luana Munoz, a reporter for CNN affiliate WESH in Orlando, described an emotional scene after her fellow journalist died. Her colleagues had left the crime scene on Hialeah Street moments earlier than the shooting, in line with the station.
“This is every reporter’s absolutely worst nightmare. We go home at night afraid that something like this will occur and that is what happened here,” Munoz stated. “We have learned that a fellow reporter has died while covering a shooting.”
“There are members of his family here, along with his fiancée, who are incredibly distraught tonight,” Munoz stated. “There are other media people who are corralled together and standing in solidarity tonight as one of our own has passed.”
Spectrum News 13’s father or mother firm, Charter Communications, launched a assertion following the assault.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and the other lives senselessly taken today,” the assertion reads. (*3*)
In a assertion, CNN known as the shooting “an absolute tragedy” and famous that the group “stands with our affiliate partner, Spectrum News 13, and will support them and the families of these journalists in any way we can.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre additionally launched a assertion, saying, “Our hearts go out to the family of the journalist killed today and the crew member injured in Orange County, Florida, as well as the whole Spectrum News team.”
Sheriff says suspect has prolonged prison historical past
Mina stated the suspect has a prolonged prison historical past that consists of gun expenses, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and assault with a lethal weapon.
He was arrested close to the space of the shootings, Mina stated.
When Moses was arrested, he was armed with a handgun, “which we believe we’re linking to these cases as well,” the sheriff stated.
“The suspect is not saying much right now,” Mina stated.
CNN’s Paradise Afshar, Devon Sayers and Isabel Rosales contributed to this report.