Wounded Orlando News Photographer recounts moments leading up to deadly shooting
News photographer Jesse Walden remembers what it was like when the bullets started flying on Hialeah Street, in Pine Hills. He survived, but his colleague, Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylon Lyons did not. Keith Moses has since been arrested and is accused of killing three people that day.
ORLANDO, Fla. – News photographer Jesse Walden remembers what it was like when the bullets started flying on Hialeah Street, in Pine Hills. “I got out of my car, went to my trunk to start pulling out things and as I was about to open the trunk, I got shot,” Walden said.
Walden and Spectrum News 13 journalist Dylan Lyons were there reporting on a murder that happened there, that morning. Deputies say while the pair was on-scene, the killer came back. “I ducked behind the tire, and he started shooting into the car, and he kept walking forward, and that’s when he noticed Dylan, and he started shooting Dylan,” Walden recalled.
Lyons didn’t survive, he was just 24 years old. TV reporters and photographers are usually paired together on assignments, Walden says he and Lyons were usually covering news together. “We loved getting to be adventurous together, we loved getting to go out, and crack jokes, and go out and seek the truth. Dylan had a strong sense of what was right, in the world.”
He says Lyons had a deep sense of justice. “He would see something wrong in the world and we would want to find who was responsible and shed some light on that.”
Walden says Lyons was as dedicated to his loved ones as he was to his work, especially his girlfriend. “He was so sweet to her. He was always bragging to me, in a really sweet way, teasing oh, look at this beautiful girl I get to go back home to.”
Lyons didn’t make it home, that night. Walden says his mission is to continue the work he and Dylan did, telling the stories of central Florida. “It’s ordinary people experiencing unbelievable, extraordinary things, and we get to help show their story.”