Search Continues For Steve Stephens, Suspect in Cleveland Homicide
Police are still searching for a man suspected of shooting a 74-year-old man in Cleveland and uploading a video of it to Facebook. The suspect has been identified as Steve Stephens, who had also broadcast on Facebook Live earlier that day claiming that he’d also killed more than a dozen people, according to NPR.
“There are no more victims that we know are tied to him,” Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said during a news conference.
On Sunday afternoon, Stephens uploaded a video to his personal Facebook page that showed him approaching an elderly man in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. Authorities have identified the victim as 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr.
“She’s the reason that this is about to happen to you,” Stephens told Godwin after randomly stopping him on the street. He then shot him in the head and fled.
The video was reportedly on Stephens’s page for up to three hours before it and his profile were both taken down.
Cleveland.com states that “Stephens has also written several Facebook statuses saying his claims of the additional killings are real and saying he was shooting because of ‘Joy Lane.'”
Reports have found that Joy Lane is the name of Stephens’s ex-girlfriend who he claims rejected his call on Easter. After being unfairly cited as the cause of Stephens’s actions, Lane finally broke her silence in a statement to CBS News.
“We had been in a relationship for several years. I am sorry that all of this has happened. My heart & prayers goes out to the family members of the victim(s). Steve really is a nice guy… he is generous with everyone he knows. He was kind and loving to me and my children. This is a very difficult time for me and my family Please respect our privacy at this time.”
Stephens is still at large as police have issued an aggravated murder warrant. They’ve also said that he may attempt to leave the state and warned residents of Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan to be on the lookout but not approach him.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Johnson spoke to reporters and pleaded that Stephens turn himself in.
We want to communicate to him that we know who he is, and that he will eventually be caught,” said Jackson. “We’re saying to him that he need not do anymore harm to anybody.”