Spectrum News 13 photographer shot while reporting; reporter killed

Two Spectrum News 13 journalists were shot while reporting at the scene of a homicide investigation in the Orlando suburb of Pine Hills, Florida, on Feb. 22, 2023. A reporter was declared dead at a local hospital where a photojournalist remains in critical condition, according to multiple sources.

The reporter and photojournalist were reporting on an Orange County Sheriff’s Office investigation into the shooting of a 20-year-old woman at approximately 11 a.m. that day, Spectrum News 13 reported.

Shortly after 4 p.m., a man believed to be the suspect in that shooting approached the news crew as they were sitting in an unmarked news vehicle and shot them. The man then continued to a nearby home and shot a woman and her 9-year-old daughter.

WFTV Channel 9 News reporter Sabrina Maggiore wrote on Twitter that the shooter walked past a WFTV news crew at the scene before opening fire on the Spectrum News crew. She wrote that the WFTV crew ran up to the journalists to provide aid before emergency crews arrived.

Spectrum News 13 reported that it is not currently releasing the names of the reporter and photojournalist out of respect for their families.

Sheriff John Mina said in a press conference at 7:15 p.m. that a man had been arrested in connection with the shootings.

“We have detained the person believed to be responsible for the murder this morning as well as the shootings this afternoon,” Mina said. “He is being formally charged in the murder from this morning, and we expect additional charges for the shootings of the four people this afternoon.”

Mina added that the shooter’s motives were unclear and they had not yet determined whether the news crew were targeted because they were covering the first shooting.

“I want to acknowledge what a horrible day this has been for our community and our media partners,” Mina said. “No one in our community — not a mother, not a 9-year-old, and certainly not news professionals — should become the victim of gun violence.”

Charter Communications, Spectrum News 13’s parent company, released a statement on Twitter following the shooting: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and the other lives senselessly taken today. Our thoughts are with our employee’s family, friends and co-workers during this very difficult time. We remain hopeful that our other colleague who was injured makes a full recovery. This is a terrible tragedy for the Orlando community.”

WESH 2 News Reporter Luana Munoz tweeted that she and other members of the news media community had gathered at the hospital in solidarity.

“This is every reporter’s absolutely worst nightmare. We go home at night afraid that something like this will occur, and that is what happened here,” Munoz said during a report from the hospital.

Since 2017, more than 300 journalists have been shot at or shot, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s database. The Spectrum News 13 reporter is the seventh journalist to be killed in the course of or as the result of their reporting.