Manhunt for Facebook killer ends after tip from McDonald's employee

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — The man who randomly gunned down a Cleveland retiree and posted video of the crime on Facebook killed himself Tuesday during a police chase in Pennsylvania that began when a McDonald's drive-thru attendant recognized him.

The violent end to the nearly 48-hour multistate manhunt for Steve Stephens culminated in a usually quiet area.

Acting on a tip from the McDonald's, Pennsylvania state troopers spotted Stephens leaving the restaurant in Erie and went after him, bumping his car to try to get it to stop, authorities said. He shot himself in the head after the car spun out of control and came to a stop, police said.

“I didn't know what was happening until I pulled over, got out and looked. I put two and two together and realized it was the Cleveland killer,” Carl White, who was driving when he was forced off the road by the case, told Channel 11’s Aaron Martin. “It is crazy, but I'm just glad it's over.”

Stephens, a 37-year-old job counselor who worked with young people, was wanted on murder charges in the killing of Robert Godwin Sr., 74, a former foundry worker and father of 10 who was picking up aluminum cans on Sunday when he was shot.

The chilling video was on Facebook for three hours before it was taken down.

"This started with one tragedy and ended with another person taking their own life," said Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams. "We would have liked to have brought Steve in peacefully and really talked to him about why this happened."

“I felt so bad for that family, but I was a little scared that he was supposedly in the area,” Erie resident Linda Schumacher told Martin.

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Police would not speculate on what was behind the killing, but in the video and other footage he posted, Stephens talked about losing everything he had to gambling and having trouble with his girlfriend. He said he "just snapped."

One of Godwin's daughters, Debbie Godwin, said she wished Stephens had been captured.

"I'm not happy he's dead at all, not at all. If you did it, you have to face your crime," she said.

The break in the case came when police received a tip that Stephens was at the McDonald's in Erie, in the northwestern corner of the state, about 100 miles east of Cleveland. He ordered Chicken McNuggets and french fries, according to the manager.

Restaurant owner Thomas DuCharme Jr. told the Erie Times-News that the drive-thru attendant thought she recognized Stephens and called state police. State Police Maj. William Teper Jr. would say only that the tip came from a "concerned citizen."

The McDonald's employees tried to "buy some time for the cops" by telling Stephens his order of fries was delayed, but Stephens said he had no time to wait and drove off, according to DuCharme.

“Basically just told him it was going to be a minute for his fries, which it wasn't really. We were just trying to make sure she got in contact with the state police, and he didn't want to wait for the fries,” said DuCharme. “He took his six-piece and didn't want any money back and headed out onto Buffalo Road, and about the minute he turned right on Buffalo Road, the state police was right behind him at that point.”

Police picked up the trail in a chase that lasted 2 miles before Stephens took his own life, authorities said.

The police chief said that it wasn't clear whether Stephens had any help while he was on the run or where he had been and that investigators will try to retrace his steps. Stephens' cellphone had been tracked Sunday afternoon near Erie, officials said on Monday.

The case brought another round of criticism down on Facebook over how responsibly it polices objectionable material posted by users.

At a Silicon Valley conference Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg briefly addressed the Cleveland case, saying Facebook has "a lot of work to do" and "we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this."

Facebook said it removed the video of the shooting 23 minutes after learning of it. The company has since announced it is launching a review for reporting harmful content.

"This is something that should not have been shared around the world. Period," Cleveland's police chief said.

In the video, Stephens told Godwin the name of his girlfriend and said, "She's the reason that this is about to happen to you." Godwin did not seem to recognize the name.

Investigators said that Godwin was the only victim so far linked to Stephens, despite his claim on Facebook that he killed over a dozen people.

Detectives spoke with the suspect on Sunday by cellphone and tried to persuade him to surrender, police said. Within a day, authorities expanded the search nationwide and offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Cox Media Group