Who Was Facebook Killer Steve Stephens?

Steve Stephens was the suspect in a Cleveland murder that was posted to Facebook.

WHO WAS STEVE STEPHENS?

Stephens took a video of himself shooting 74-year-old Robert Godwin in the street as he walked home from Easter meal with his children. The gunman had chosen Godwin apparently randomly. He was a father of 10 and grandfather of 14.

Stephens’ mother Maggie Greene said that her son had visited her the day before the shooting. “He said this [was] the last time I was going to see him,” she said of their conversation. He apparently said he was “shooting people” because he was “mad with his girlfriend” of three years.

Stephens posted the violent video of himself shooting Godwin to Facebook, and it took them nearly 2 hours to find and remove the footage. The social media platform has received a lot of flak for their slow action. In the video, Stephens told his victim to say the name of his girlfriend, saying, “She’s the reason why this is about to happen to you.”

The woman believed to be associated has said she is “overwhelmed” by the tragedy. “Steve really is a nice guy… he is generous with everyone he knows. He was kind and loving to me and my children,” she told CBS News.

Stephens was on the run for days before being found in a McDonald’s parking lot near Erie, Pennsylvania. A tip was called into the police, who found Stephens in his white Ford Fusion. He fled and the troopers gave chase. “As the vehicle was spinning out of control from the PIT maneuver, Stephens pulled a pistol and shot himself in the head,” the PA State Police report. Stephens was dead at the scene.

Brenda Haymon, daughter of Godwin, learned that Stephens had killed himself while planning funeral arrangements for her father. “All I can say is that I wish he had gone down in a hail of 100 bullets,” she said. “I wish it had gone down like that instead of him shooting himself.”