It seems the harrowing case of Steve Stephens has finally come to a dramatic end. After being pursued by police since Sunday, April 16, and through the joint efforts of the Cleveland police department alongside neighboring state officers and the FBI, Stephen’s reign of terror has come to an end. It is being reported that after being pursued and spotted by authorities in Erie, Pennsylvania, Stephens has died due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Innocent bloodshed
The manhunt for Stephens began after he recorded a video and uploaded it to Facebook of himself shooting an elderly man on a sidewalk, later identified as Robert Godwin Sr.
, age 74. According to the video, Mr. Godwin was minding his business and traveling on foot when he was approached by Stephens. When he approaches Godwin, Stephens asks Godwin to say the name Joy Lane over and over again. When Godwin finally says it, he insists that he doesn’t know who this woman is and can be seen trying to distance himself from Stephens. Stephens then tells Godwin that Ms. Lane is “the reason this is happening to you.” He the draws a gun and as Godwin is attempting to shield himself and back away, Stephens shoots him at point blank range in the head.
Shortly after the video made its way around online, there was much controversy over its authenticity, but after Cleveland PD verified the death of Mr.
Godwin, fear and panic began to set in for those who had witnessed the brutal murder and for the people of Cleveland, OH.
Triggered by rejection
As the hunt for Stephens began, more and more information came to light about his personal life and career. In other videos he posted online, which along with his Facebook account have since been removed from the social network, Stephens is seen lamenting his lot in life.
He claims he was already someone with a lot of “built-in anger” and “the butt of everyone’s joke,” but credits the dissolution of his relationship with Ms. Lane as the last straw.
While in this other video Stephens claimed to have killed 12 to 15 people in an “Easter Day Slaughter,” currently authorities have only been able to verify and credit the murder of Mr.Godwin to Stephens.
After two days of nationwide panic and an intense search, the country can now rest easy knowing Steve Stephens, aka “the Facebook killer,” is no longer a threat. Godwin’s daughter Brenda Haymon wishes things had played out just a little differently.
Haymon told CNN, "All I can say is that I wish he had gone down in a hail of one hundred bullets.”
