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Reporter killed on the job in Orlando area identified

24-year-old Dylan Lyons was a UCF graduate and was said to have loved his job and the Orlando community.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The reporter who died after being shot while covering an ongoing homicide investigation in the Orlando area has been identified. 

Spectrum News 13 said 24-year-old reporter Dylan Lyons died Wednesday. Lyons was born in Philadelphia but moved to Central Florida to attend the University of Central Florida. 

After graduation, Lyons reportedly moved to Gainesville "to do what he loved — anchoring and reporting the news."

"He took his job very seriously. He loved his career. He loved what he did,” Josh Miller, Spectrum Sports 360 reporter and friend told Spectrum News 13. “He loved the community, telling the stories of people, reporting on the news, and he was just passionate about what he did."

He would later move to Orlando to work for Spectrum News 13. During his time as a journalist, Lyons received an award from the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists, the news outlet shared. 

"A motivated and talented professional who was living his dream in Orlando, Dylan Lyons will not be forgotten," Spectrum News 13 said in part.

His girlfriend, Casey Lynn, posted on Twitter Wednesday saying, "the love of my life was murdered. I will never be the same person ever again. Please help my family and I during this time." 

According to a GoFundMe started in his name, Rachel Lyons, who identified herself as Dylan's older sister, was an "acting father to his niece and nephew who he loved so much." 

"He was a happy soul and wonderful person in life. [M]y brother was our baby. He was taken too early from us," the post read in part. 

Two other people died in shootings surrounding Lyons' death, including a 9-year-old girl and a woman in her 20s who was killed in the initial homicide investigation. 

Two others are listed in "critical" condition in the hospital, including the mother of the 9-year-old and Spectrum News 13 photojournalist Jesse Walden. 

The man suspected of the shootings, 19-year-old Keith Moses, is in custody. 

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