The Facebook/Cleveland Killer, and former job-counselor for teens, Steve Stephens, posted a video of an apparently “random” murder of 74 year-old Robert Godwin Sr. When the police finally caught up with Stephens in Erie, Pennsylvania, he committed suicide following a police chase.
Godwin was shot Sunday, April 16, while walking home from an Easter meal with his children, in Cleveland, Ohio. Stephens posted video of the elderly man’s death on Facebook saying, “I snapped, I just snapped.”
Later Sunday, Stephens uploaded a video to his Facebook page showing a gun pointed at a man’s head: Robert Godwin.
Stephens claimed on Facebook that he had killed more people, but police aren’t aware of any other victims. Stephens had many traffic violations but no criminal record, police said.
A McDonald’s employee, in Erie, Pennsylvania, spotted Stephens’ white Ford Fusion in the drive-thru and called authorities on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.
The employee called the police, telling the authorities, “I think that’s the guy.” The Mcdonald’s employee later told the press that he “looked suspicious” and drove off before he received his full order. According to CNN Stephens led the police in a chase for five miles, before being hit with the PIT maneuver by one of the police officers that were dispatched.
“As the vehicle was spinning out of control, from the PIT maneuver, Stephens pulled a pistol and shot himself in the head,” Pennsylvania police said.
For two days, authorities across the country struggled to find Stephens, the man wanted for the death of Robert Godwin, a self-taught mechanic and grandfather of 14.
Cleveland Police Chief, Calvin Williams, told the press,”We’re grateful that this has ended…We would prefer that it had not ended this way because there are a lot of questions, I’m sure, that not only the family, but the city in general would have had for Steve.”
The Tuesday after Stephen’s death, his former girlfriend, Joy Lane, who was identified in the video of Godwin’s death, met with two of the victim’s daughters, Debbie Godwin, and Tonya Godwin-Baines. A CNN affiliate, WJW, or Fox8 News Cleveland, reported the women hugged each other and cried together.
Through their tears, several of Godwin’s children said they held no animosity toward Stephens. “Each one of us forgives the killer, the murderer,” Godwin-Baynes said Monday. His children remembered how their father taught them the value of hard work, and how to love God and forgive.
“They don’t make men like him anymore,” said his daughter Debbie Godwin. “He was definitely one in a million.”
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, discussed Godwin’s death at the company’s annual developer’s conference.
“We have a lot of work, and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” Zuckerberg said on stage. “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Robert Godwin Sr.”