1998–2023
Spectrum News 13 | Pine Hills, Florida | February 22, 2023 | Age 24
His murder while covering a breaking news story represented the deadly intersection of local journalism’s budget constraints and America’s gun violence crisis, sparking renewed debate about reporter safety in an increasingly dangerous profession.
The Journalist
Dylan Colby Lyons was born in Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, on March 11, 1998. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with degrees in journalism and political science, drawn to the campus in part by its strong journalism program and location in a growing media market.
At UCF, he threw himself into the work. He reported and anchored for the Knightly News, the student outlet where young journalists learned their craft. A former editor at the paper remembered him by his passion, his ethics and integrity, and his unstoppable work ethic.
Early in his career, Lyons demonstrated versatility that would become his trademark. He interned at WKMG-TV while still in school, absorbing lessons about broadcast journalism from working professionals. After graduating, he entered the job market at a challenging time for local news—an era of shrinking newsrooms and stretched budgets—but his adaptability gave him an edge.
The Work
Lyons’s career was short but showed promise that would never be fulfilled. He started in Gainesville, reporting for the local ABC station WCJB. For someone just out of college, he handled a wide range of assignments—the morning show, nightside reporting, breaking news, whatever the small staff needed.
His friend Josh Miller, who worked alongside him in Gainesville, remembered: “He took his job very seriously. He loved his career. He loved what he did. He loved the community, telling the stories of people, reporting on the news, and he was just passionate about what he did.”
By 2020, Lyons had received recognition from the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists for his politics series. He was later a finalist for investigative work. For a reporter still in his early twenties, these honors suggested a journalist developing depth alongside his natural enthusiasm.
The work reflected an interest in local news as civic service—covering the community, connecting people to the forces shaping their lives, asking hard questions. In his own words about his reporting style, colleagues remembered him describing himself as someone who was “never afraid to ask the tough questions.”
In July 2022, Lyons joined Spectrum News 13 as a multimedia journalist. At 24, he was just six months into the job when he was killed.
The Final Story
On the afternoon of February 22, 2023, Lyons and photojournalist Jesse Walden were sent to cover a homicide in Pine Hills, a neighborhood outside Orlando. A 38-year-old woman, Nathacha Augustin, had been shot and killed earlier that day. The suspect, 19-year-old Keith Moses, was still at large.
Lyons and Walden arrived at the scene around 4 p.m., joining other news crews covering the developing story. They were sitting in their news vehicle when Moses returned to the area and opened fire on them.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina later said it was unclear whether Moses knew they were journalists when he attacked. “It’s unclear why exactly they were targeted,” Mina said.
Lyons was shot and killed. Walden was critically wounded but survived. After shooting the journalists, Moses walked to a nearby home and opened fire again, killing 9-year-old T’Yonna Major and wounding her mother.
Moses had no apparent connection to the reporters or to the mother and daughter. The randomness of the violence—a suspect returning to a crime scene and shooting whoever was there—made the attack particularly chilling for journalists who regularly cover breaking news.
The Reckoning
The outpouring of grief was immediate and public. Casey Lynn, Lyons’s fiancée, wrote on Twitter: “The love of my life was murdered. I will never be the same person ever again.”
A GoFundMe campaign set up by his older sister Rachel to cover funeral expenses raised more than $85,000, demonstrating the mobilization of a younger generation processing the loss of one of their peers.
The public mourning played out across social media, where colleagues and friends shared memories and tributes. It captured something about how young journalists experience loss differently in the digital age—processing trauma collectively online, their grief visible and permanent.
His peers at Spectrum recalled his passion for local news and community storytelling. Erik Sandoval, a reporter at WKMG where Lyons had interned, remembered running into him at an awards ceremony the year before: “Dylan wanted so badly to be a broadcast journalist. He was excited for his future, and we were excited for him. When I saw him last year at an awards ceremony (where he won), I gave him a huge hug. Dylan was talented. Dylan was electric. Dylan had a future.”
In January 2025, Lyons’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Charter Communications, Spectrum’s parent company, alleging the company had failed to provide adequate security or protective equipment despite sending him to cover an active crime scene where the suspect remained at large. The lawsuit raised uncomfortable questions about how news organizations balance the need for coverage against the safety of young, often inexperienced reporters working in shrinking newsrooms with limited resources.
Spectrum called Lyons’s death “an unforeseeable and horrible tragedy” and denied the allegations, saying they would seek to have the lawsuit dismissed.
The Legacy
Lyons’s death occurred against the backdrop of a collapsing local news ecosystem. The number of journalists covering local communities has dropped dramatically since the early 2000s, with thousands of newspapers closing and many counties left without local news coverage.
Local news outlets, operating on shoestring budgets, increasingly ask young reporters to cover dangerous situations without the security protocols or backup that larger organizations might provide. The economics of local journalism—shrinking advertising revenue, corporate consolidation, staff reductions—create conditions where safety can become secondary to getting the story.
His murder prompted Sheriff John Mina and other law enforcement officials to address the journalism community directly, acknowledging that reporters doing their jobs had become targets. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd released a statement encouraging journalists to contact his office if they ever felt unsafe covering a story.
But the broader questions remained: How do local news organizations protect reporters in an era when covering breaking news has become increasingly dangerous? What responsibility do media companies have when they send young journalists into volatile situations? And what happens to communities when the risks of local reporting become too high?
Lyons would have turned 25 a month after his death. His colleagues remembered someone who embodied the idealism that still draws young people into journalism despite its declining economic prospects and increasing dangers—the belief that local news matters, that communities deserve to know what’s happening, that asking questions serves the public good.
His death made him one of the youngest American journalists killed while covering a story, a grim statistic that underscores both the vulnerability of local reporters and the violence that has become routine in American life.
The memorial at his journalism school at UCF grew with flowers and notes from students who saw in him what they hoped to become. One tribute captured the loss simply: “He was our future.”
Content included in this publication was generously provided by Freedom Forum which hosted the Journalists Memorial for 18 years to commemorate journalists who died reporting the news.
Freedom Forum is a partner with the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation.