A lawsuit accusing Spectrum News 13’s parent company of negligence in the fatal shooting of one of its reporters in Pine Hills is asking for at least $1.7 million in noneconomic damages as well as punitive damages.

In addition, Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum News, filed notice moving the case to federal court from Orange County court earlier this month. The notice cites, among the reasons, an amended disclosure submitted by lawyers for the family of Dylan Lyons stating the estimated noneconomic damages as well as the company being based out of Connecticut.

The disclosure, presented April 16 to the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court but not publicly available until the federal suit was filed May 15, noted that the damage amount is for the emotional impact of Lyons’ death and is “expected to increase as discovery progresses.” It does not cover punitive damages nor does it include lost wages or expenses such as funeral or medical costs — separate amounts not in the disclosure.

A Charter spokesperson declined comment on the filing. Attorneys from NeJame Law, the firm that represents Lyons’ estate, did not respond to messages seeking comment. News 13, which covers the Greater Orlando area, is an Orlando Sentinel news partner.

Lyons, 24, was killed Feb. 22, 2023, while reporting on the killing of 38-year-old Natacha Augustin, who was shot in the back of the head by accused gunman Keith Moses as they sat in the backseat of his cousin’s car. According to investigators, Lyons sat inside his news van at the scene when Moses fired at him shortly after emerging from a house where he had fatally shot 9-year-old T’Yonna Major and injured her mother.

A News 13 cameraman with Lyons was also shot but survived. Moses, 21, could face the death penalty if convicted of the three charges of first-degree murder he faces. His trial is tentatively scheduled to begin Sept. 29.

On Jan. 28, Lyons’ family filed the lawsuit against Charter, accusing it of failing to provide proper training or warning when it sent him to the scene while Moses was at large. The company has previously rejected claims of wrongdoing and called Lyons’ death “an unforeseeable and horrible tragedy.”

Defendant Keith Moses, accused in the February 2023 murders of 3 people in Pine Hills —including a 9-year-old girl and a television reporter— appears in Orange circuit court in Orlando, Thursday, January 25, 2024. Moses was in court for a mental competency hearing ordered by Judge Leticia Marques. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

A separate federal lawsuit against the Orange County Sheriff’s Office accuses it of not providing notice Moses was on the loose, leading to the deaths of Lyons and T’Yonna. The agency also denies wrongdoing.

“With regards to these specific allegations, Dylan was the victim of a senseless act of violence. The claims against Spectrum News are unfounded and we will seek to have them dismissed,” a Charter spokesperson said after the lawsuit’s initial filing. In a motion to dismiss filed March 28, the company further argued there are no other examples of its reporters being attacked while at a scene and that the sole remedy for Lyons’ death is workers’ compensation.

The lawsuit against Charter presents an unusual legal question on the responsibility of news organizations to protect its reporting corps. According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which monitors attacks on journalists, just 25 incidents of reporters shot on duty resulted in lawsuits — virtually all of them against law enforcement.

The one instance of a news organization being sued happened after the 2018 newsroom massacre that killed five journalists at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland.

Survivors accused the newspaper and the Baltimore Sun of wrongful death, arguing the shooting would have been prevented were there adequate security. That lawsuit was settled in 2023 for an undisclosed amount.

While there appear to be no other instances of a news organization being sued over reporters injured or killed in the field, NeJame said in January there should have been training to prepare Lyons for potentially dangerous scenarios. He further argued reporters should be allowed to say “no” to a dangerous assignment.