GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Family members of a murdered television news reporter in Orlando and a 9-year-old girl are suing the sheriff in Orange County, saying his agency could have prevented the killings.
The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, said the sheriff’s office violated the constitutional rights of the victims and residents of the mostly Black neighborhood where the shootings occurred. It said Orange County Sheriff John W. Mina provided residents of the Pine Hills neighborhood west of downtown Orlando inadequate protection.
The plaintiff’s lawyer said the sheriff’s office didn’t treat the majority Black community with the same urgency or importance as it would with a primarily white neighborhood.
The sheriff’s office said Tuesday it will ask the judge to throw out the lawsuit, and said the only person to blame in the shootings is the gunman, Keith Moses.
“Keith Moses is the only person responsible for the heinous acts of violence that took the lives of three of our residents and gravely injured two others,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The claims against the Orange County Sheriff’s Office are unfounded and we will be asking the judge to dismiss this case.”
The lawsuit said deputies could have prevented the murder of T’Yonna Major, 9, and Spectrum 13 reporter Dylan Lyons, 24, if the sheriff’s office had given Pine Hills the same attention given to communities like Windermere, a nearby mostly white neighborhood.
“What’s significant about this case is that it could’ve been prevented. A 9-year-old child could be alive today if, in fact, things had been handled differently,” said Orlando lawyer Mark NeJame, who is representing the family of Major and Lyons. “And they’re handled differently in other parts of the county.”
NeJame on Tuesday described what he called the discriminatory policies in the sheriff’s office that led to the death of Lyons and Major.
In February 2023, Orange County deputies said Moses, 21 shot and killed Nathacha Augustin, 38. The lawsuit said investigators knew Moses was the killer but didn’t warn Pine Hills residents that the shooting happened or that they were still searching for the gunman.
NeJame said that while bringing 9-year-old Major home from school, her mother, Brandi Turner, stopped to ask a deputy stationed in Pine Hills whether the area was safe, since there was a large law enforcement presence. The deputy told her everything was under control, even though sheriff’s officials hadn’t cleared the crime scene yet, according to the lawsuit.
About 30 minutes later, Moses shot Turner and her daughter in their home. The 9-year-old died from her injuries and Turner was badly injured, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Because it was Pine Hills, they indicated that it was in fact, they couldn’t be putting warnings out and giving the neighborhood the warnings that other neighborhoods would be given,” NeJame said. “I can tell you, in my white, wealthy Windermere neighborhood, that if this in fact had happened and there had been a shooting, and a murder, everyone would have known about it. When there’s burglaries, there are helicopters in the sky.”
Around 73% of Pine Hills residents are Black, and more than 90% of Windermere residents are white, according to the Census Bureau.
Family members of Lyons and Major are accusing the sheriff’s office of violating the shooting victims’ 14th Amendment rights by not offering them equal protection under the law.
Investigators said that after shooting the young girl and her mother, Moses later shot Lyons and his photographer Jesse Walden, who were reporting on the initial shooting. Lyons was killed and Walden was severely injured.
“We proceed because it’s the right thing to do,” NeJame said. “They wanna fight it in court? Here we are.”
Monday’s lawsuit is the second from Lyons’ family. Lyons’ family has separately filed a wrongful death lawsuit in state court against the TV station, accusing news managers of sending the reporter to a dangerous crime scene without safety equipment.
“Dylan was the victim of a senseless act of violence,” the news station said in a statement earlier this year after the lawsuit was filed. “The claims against Spectrum News are unfounded and we will seek to have them dismissed.”
Moses was arrested the day after the shootings, and is facing several homicide charges. His trial is set to begin on Sept. 29.
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