INTENSE MANHUNT FOR SUSPECTED OHIO FACEBOOK KILLER
Reward posted after suspect admits to an ‘ Easter day slaughter’
An intense national manhunt was underway Monday for a Cleveland murder suspect who was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list after posting video on Facebook of a fatal shooting.
Mayor Frank Jackson announced a reward of up to $ 50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Steve Stephens in the Easter Sunday shooting death of Robert Godwin, 74. Stephens, 37, also claimed to have killed at least a dozen others, although police said they have no evidence of it.
Police Chief Calvin Williams said federal, state and local authorities across the nation were involved in the search. He implored Stephens to surrender.
“We want to get this resolved as soon as possible. The victim’s family deserves it. The community deserves it,” Williams said at a news conference.
Earlier, Williams said detectives contacted Stephens on his cellphone shortly after the shooting but were unable to convince him to turn himself in. He said officers and the FBI searched dozens of possible locations for Stephens to no avail. No other victims have been found, Williams said, but Stephens should be considered armed and dangerous.
“We don’t want people to panic,” Williams said. “So far there has been one fatality, one homicide. We are still asking Steve to turn himself in, but if he doesn’t we will find him.”
Williams said friends and family of Stephens have been cooperative. He warned that it was a felony to aid any effort by Stephens to avoid arrest.
Police were trying to locate his white, Ford Fusion with temporary Ohio tags.
Stephens said Sunday on Facebook that he had committed an “Easter day slaughter.” In the video, Stephens gets out of his car and appears to randomly target Godwin, who was walking on a sidewalk carrying a shopping bag. Stephens says the name of a woman.
“She’s the reason that this is about to happen to you,” Stephens told Godwin before pointing a gun at him. Godwin can be seen raising his arm as if to protect himself. The woman, Stephens’ partner Joy Lane, is safe and has been cooperating with police, Williams said.
Lane broke her silence on the suspect and the shooting in a text 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.”
Godwin, a father of 10, was shot while out picking up cans in a plastic shopping bag, his daughter said. “Not because he needed the money; it was just something he did,” said Debbie Godwin, 52. She described her dad as a gentle man. “We called him the junk man. He’d pick up things off the street and fix them.”
Authorities on Sunday said a series of posts on Stephens’ Facebook page complained that he had “lost everything” to gambling, NBC News reported. Stephens allegedly wrote: “I killed 12 people today” and said he wouldn’t stop until he could speak to his mother and a second woman. The video of the killing remained on Facebook for nearly three hours before it was taken down and Stephens’ page deactivated.