Here’s what we know about the suspect in the deadly Pine Hills shootings

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Sheriff John Mina announced Wednesday the arrest of 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses following shootings in Pine Hills that ended in the deaths of a woman, a 9-year-old girl and a Spectrum News 13 journalist.

In a news briefing, Mina stated that a woman, identified as 38-year-old Nathacha Augustin, was found shot to death in the 6100 block of Hialeah Street around 11:20 a.m., though Moses returned to the scene around 4 p.m. and fatally shot a Spectrum News 13 journalist — later identified as 24-year-old Dylan Lyons — and photographer, Jesse Walden, who were covering the homicide.

Deputies said Moses then walked up Harrington Street and entered into a home, where he shot a woman and her 9-year-old daughter, T’yonna Major, who died.

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Mina said during a news conference Thursday Moses was found with the help of witnesses and he was uncooperative with deputies. Mina said they found on Moses a Glock-40 semi-automatic handgun, which was still warm to the touch.

Moses claimed he was injured and was taken to an area hospital, where he said he couldn’t breathe. Mina said he fought with hospital staff and deputies had to restrain him again.

Mina said he would not cooperate with deputies during initial interviews and pretended to be asleep, then began to resist deputies again and had to be subdued. He’s currently in the Orange County Jail.

Mina said that there was no information on whether Moses knew that the journalist and photographer were with the news media. Instead, Mina said that it was possible that Moses mistook the journalist and photographer for law enforcement.

“(The news vehicle) was almost exactly in the same spot as the vehicle was from the homicide this morning,” Mina said. “So it’s unclear why exactly they were a target, and we’re certainly going to look into that.”

Mina added that Moses was an acquaintance of Augustin, who was killed in the morning. A witness said Moses “seemed down” before the shooting, Mina said.

Mina said they are also still trying to find out if there was a connection between Moses and the mother and child who were shot.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Moses was arrested multiple times spanning all the way back to 2018, when Moses was still 14 years old. Below are the dates of previous arrests and charges that Moses faced.

• January 2018
  • Grand theft of a motor vehicle (sentenced to community control for one year)
  • Battery (sentenced to community control for one year)
• March 2018
  • Battery (sentenced to community control for one year)
• April 2018
  • Resisting officer without violence (sentenced to community control for one year)
  • Unarmed burglary of an unoccupied conveyance (charge dismissed)
  • Grand theft $300-$500 (charge dismissed)
• June 2018
  • Resisting officer without violence (sentenced to community control for one year and community service)
• October 2018
  • Battery (charge dismissed)
  • Attempted robbery with a firearm (sentenced to “low-risk residential restrictive commitment”)
• February 2020
  • Unarmed burglary of occupied conveyance (charge dropped)
  • Grand theft $300-$500 (charge dropped)

Court records show that Moses has a long criminal history, but the only charges he faced as an adult were for possessing drug paraphernalia and cannabis in 2021.

During that arrest, deputies said Moses was in a vehicle with two others, all of whom appeared to be smoking cannabis. The car almost struck a deputy patrol vehicle, prompting deputies to pull the car over for a traffic stop, deputies said.

An arrest affidavit shows that as deputies approached the car, a firearm was tossed out of the vehicle’s passenger side into some nearby shrubs.

The driver and both of the passengers — including Moses — were detained, and 4.6 grams of cannabis were found in Moses’ pocket, the affidavit says. Deputies also noted that several ski-mask-style masks were found during the traffic stop.

The state said the amount of marijuana found amounted to only a misdemeanor charge.

Mina stated during Wednesday’s briefing that Moses would be formally charged in Wednesday morning’s homicide, though additional charges are expected for the other shootings.

According to deputies, Moses also has prior firearm possession charges, including aggravated battery, aggravated assault, burglary, grand theft and armed robbery with a firearm. All of those charges occurred when Moses was a juvenile. The outcome of none of these cases can be considered convictions, says Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell.

“So when we say an individual has a certain amount of juvenile arrests with no convictions, that statement is out of context, because there is nowhere in the state of Florida when a child is arrested, that the result of that arrest is a conviction,” Worrell said.

Orange County Corrections Department released the booking photo from Moses’ arrest on Wednesday, along with paperwork showing his first-degree murder charge. Paperwork released alongside the photo shows that Moses waived his first appearance in court due to mental health.

The photographer and mother who were shot remain hospitalized at the time of this writing. News 13′s Asher Wildman announced on social media Wednesday evening that the team member in the hospital was responsive and would undergo further treatments.

On Friday, Moses entered a plea of not guilty in response to the first-degree murder charge. More charges are expected.

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