'I'm Very Lucky To Be Alive': Florida Shooting Survivor Speaks Out
The injured Central Florida news photographer describes the harrowing events leading up to the shooting that took the life of a colleague.
One of the Florida shooting victims, Jesse Walden, a photojournalist with Spectrum News 13, was shot while documenting the murder of 38-year-old Nathacha Augustin in Pine Hills. He is now recovering in an Orlando hospital.
Dylan Lyons, a reporter who worked with him, was fatally injured.
Walden updated his Facebook on Thursday with surgery details.
Walden claimed he heard gunshots while retrieving his camera from the car's trunk in an interview with FOX 35's Amanda McKenzie.
The Florida shooting gunman shot him and yelled at Lyons to phone 911, unaware that his friend had also been hit.
Walden detailed the terrifying moment he realized a shooter was approaching.
"I see that he's shooting at me. I was assuming he was shooting at a house or something behind me, and I just happened to catch a bullet, but he kept shooting at me."
To avoid getting shot, Walden said he dove beneath the car's wheel. Lyons, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was fatally shot. The gunfire injured Walden, but he managed to survive.
He described Lyons as "just a sweet guy" who he worked with daily.
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Neighbors Come to Help Them
A photojournalist from another station applied pressure on his wound to stop the flow of blood until neighbors eventually ran to help, according to Walden.
After shooting and killing Augustin, police claim 19-year-old Keith Kelvin Moses, the Florida shooting gunman, returned to the neighborhood and shot Walden and Brandi Major and her 9-year-old daughter T'yonna Major, both nine, inside their home. The little girl perished as well, The Guardian noted.
Officers found a Glock 40 semiautomatic handgun in his possession and reported that no other suspects were in the area.
The White House could not ignore how strange it was that a teenager was accused of killing a journalist who was working on a story about gun violence.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the president's press secretary, denounced the shooting during a briefing on Thursday and reaffirmed the administration of Joe Biden's support for stricter gun control regulations.
Florida Shooting Gunman Arrested
Moses has a lengthy criminal history, including at least eight felonies and 11 misdemeanor charges for offenses like burglary, grand theft, assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault, and possession of a pistol while under the influence of drugs, according to deputies.
It is still unclear why Moses shot the Florida shooting victims reporting the earlier shooting that day, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said.
Moses was arrested with a handgun in his pants that was still hot and had no bullets left because it had just been fired.
Witnesses have positively identified Moses as the shooter, and Mina has stated that the gun will be put through ballistics tests to confirm that it was the weapon used in the shootings.
Security footage also showed that he was in the area at the time of the crime. However, Moses was not helpful when deputies took him into custody, according to reports.
Meanwhile, Moses was hurt and could not breathe, so he was sent to the hospital, according to Mina, stating that deputy sheriffs had to hold him down after he fought with hospital staff.
Moreover, the Florida shooting gunman claimed to be asleep when he was transported to the sheriff's office, but he later became violent with the deputies, according to Mina.
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This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Bert Hoover
WATCH: 'Lucky to be alive' photographer Jesse Walden says after being injured in Florida shooting - From FOX 35 Orlando
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