The police force in #Ohio have told residents in the states nearby to be alert and on the lookout for a man who they claim shot and #killed an old man at random before positing the video on Facebook Social Media Site.
The man, #Steve Stephens, is being tracked down for a charge of aggravated murder regarding the sudden and cruel death of #Robert Godwin Senior in the city of Cleveland on Sunday. On Monday, police broadcast a statement that warned residents of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan and New York to keep an eye out for the suspected man who may have traveled beyond his own state of Ohio.
In the troubling and violent #Facebook video, shot on a shaky phone camera, Stephens departs from his car and heads in what appears to be a random move to target Godwin. Stephens then announces the name of a woman, and the older Godwin does not appear to know the name but gets killed anyway.
A few seconds after this, Stephens tells Godwin that "she's the reason that this is about to happen to you," before pointing the #gun at the old man. In a devastating shot, Godwin shields his face by holding the plastic shopping bag up.
Godwin's son speaks out
The #murdered man's son, Robert Godwin Junior, has been recorded as saying to Ceveland.com that he doesn't want to watch the video and can't even handle seeing the news or the media reports.
His father, Godwin Snr was a retired worker from a foundry who he was in the habit of collecting aluminum cans. He walked around the city often with a shopping bag into which he placed aluminum cans. This is what Godwin Jnr believed his father was doing when Stephens cruelly approached him on Sunday.
Facebook was live during the killing
At one point during the day the suspect Stephens did, according to #Facebook, go live on the social media site, but the killing was not a live event. Police, however, had earlier claimed that Stephens did indeed broadcast it live on the social media site. The #video of the murder was appearing on Facebook for around three or two hours when it was actually removed by the social media company.
On the same day, Stephens's Facebook page was then also taken down from live status by the social media site and they kept it off from that point on.
A Facebook spokesperson said that they try very hard to keep the site a safe environment and that they were in touch with police whenever there are threats to someone's physical safety.
Stephens posted in yet another video on #Facebook claiming to have killed more than 12 other people. He said that he was working on "14 as we speak." The FBI too has been investigating the situation and hopes to contain more information soon. However local police haven’t verified other shootings and the video may indeed be the claim of a sociopath looking for attention.
Police Chief Calvin Williams said there were no other deaths reported in the area and that there were no more victims that they knew of being connected to him. But that didn’t stop police from saying that the alleged murderer Stephens was definitely considered #Armed And Dangerous.
On Monday authorities continued to ask the public for help and also begged the suspect to give himself over to police. Accordingly, #police have searched many areas and locations and they have attempted to talk to the suspect on his cell phone after the murder took place. Now the hunt for Stephens grows and develops in Ohio and next door states as the nation grows weary of the chain of events.
"Obviously, this individual is armed and dangerous, and quite frankly at this point he could be in a lot of places," Stephen Anthony, an #FBI Special Agent in Charge told a news conference in Cleveland.
