Steve Stephens, the murder suspect who fatally shot 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr. in Cleveland and broadcasted the murder in a Facebook live video on Sunday (April 16), killed himself in Pennsylvania after a police chase, officers said Tuesday.
Authorities revealed that Stephens’ white Ford Fusion was spotted in the parking lot of a McDonald’s near Erie and called authorities. According to CNN, Stephens then fled, and state troopers started a pursuit. One trooper performed a “PIT” maneuver — a strategic way of ramming a vehicle to disable it.
“As the vehicle was spinning out of control from the PIT maneuver, Stephens pulled a pistol and shot himself in the head,” Pennsylvania State Police said.
As previously reported, police in Cleveland, Ohio issued an aggravated murder warrant for 37-year-old Steve Stephens after the random cold-blooded killing.
The video, which flooded social media for the past few days, shows the point-of-view of the shooter as he gets out of a vehicle and approaches an elderly man, later identified as Godwin, walking down the sidewalk carrying a plastic shopping bag. Authorities said Steve Stephens pulled up to a roadside in his Ford Fusion in east Cleveland about 2 p.m. Sunday and said in the video: “I found somebody I’m about to kill.”
“I’m about to kill this guy right here; he’s an old dude,” Stephens said as he approached Robert Godwin Sr., who was out looking for aluminum cans on the sidewalk.
“Can you do me a favor?” Stephens said to Godwin before asking him to say the name Joy Lane.
“Joy Lane?” Godwin responded.
“Yeah,” Stephens replied. “She’s the reason why this is about to happen to you.”
The camera spun around and Godwin’s body was on the ground soaked in blood.
The interaction lasted less than a minute.
The victim can be seen lying motionless and bloody on the pavement before the suspect returns to the vehicle.
In another video, Stephens claimed to have killed more than a dozen other people, but police said they have not found evidence of any other victims.
Police said that Stephens wrote about committing 13 other homicides on his Facebook page and said that he would not stop until he could speak with his mother as well as a second woman. He referred to the professed killing spree as his “Easter day slaughter.”
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