One of the last persons to talk to Steve Stephens was his pastor, reverend R.A. Vernon of The Word Church, according to reports. He claims that he immediately called Stephens after learning about the shooting.
Dr. Vernon said in an interview with Channel 3’s Russ Mitchell, “I did say to him not to kill anyone else.” He added, “I just begged him not to take any more lives,” according to a report by WKYC. After that, the phone just went dead, he claimed.
The reverend decided not to share what Stephens has told him, saying out of integrity of spirituality.
He explained that a lot of people depend on him to keep things in confidence.
Dr. Vernon says that he is sorry that another life had to end but also thankful that the closure for the families involved can begin its process.
Cleveland shooting
In that incident, Steve Stephens randomly chose 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr. as his victim. While broadcasting live on Facebook, Stephens pointed his gun at Godwin and shot him in the head before fleeing the crime scene. A manhunt was announced by the Cleveland authorities for his immediate capture.
A few days later, police have caught up to Stephens after being tipped-off by Mc Donald's employees and after a brief pursuit, Stephens committed suicide.
Ryan Godwin, the victim’s grandson, pleaded for people to stop sharing the video of his grandfather’s murder.
Meanwhile, Stephen’s 42-year-old ex-girlfriend said that Stephens was responsible for his own actions but the attention he received from the people has escalated the issue.
Facebook’s efforts to lessen crimes on live-streaming
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, “We have a lot of work and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” USA Today reported.
Facebook has deployed teams of content moderators. Their sole purpose is to remove content that violates the social media giant’s policies. They are working alongside artificial intelligence software that also detects prohibited content.
Zuckerberg claims that they are within years of reducing violent content on Facebook. This is possible because of their software that can detect the contents of a video. Currently, Facebook is still dependent on reports that people submit.
Do you think Facebook can eliminate violent content from being live-streamed in the near future?
