Steve Stephens (Stevie Steve)
Steve Stephens (Stevie Steve)
Steve William Stephens (December 10, 1979 - April 18, 2017), also known as Stevie Steve ,is an American case manager at Beech Brook, a behavioral health agency, where he served as a guidance counselor to the youth. He hails from and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Stephens recorded himself killing an innocent old man named Robert Godwin, Sr. in April 2017 and uploaded the video on Facebook moments later. [1]
Death
Steve Stevens' white Ford Fusion and two police cars
On April 18, 2017, Steve Stephens shot and killed himself in his White Ford Fusion after a brief pursuit by Pennsylvania State Police in Erie, PA. He was spotted by members of the Pennsylvania State Police who attempted a traffic stop and “after a brief pursuit, Stephens shot and killed himself.”
The police were tipped off to Steve Stephens' location in Erie when he stopped at a McDonald's drive-through on Buffalo Road in Harborcreek Township. The McDonald's employees said a drive-through attendant alerted State police when Stephens stopped at the restaurant’s window at approximately 11:10 a.m.
After receiving the message, police officers found Steve Stephen's car, which fled the McDonald's area.
Steve Stephens eventually stopped his car.
By the time officers approached him, Steve Stephens took his own life; he used a handgun.
The owner of the franchise, Thomas DuCharme Jr., said Stephens ordered 20 chicken McNuggets and a basket of fries, but the workers held off on delivering the fries to delay Stephens. He said Stephens got the nuggets. “We told him his fries were going to be a minute,” said Henry Sayers, the restaurant’s manager. Said DuCharme: “I am pretty sure he figured out that we were on to him. He didn’t want to wait for his fries.” He said Stephens then drove away without the fries.
According to Cleveland Police chief Calvin D. Williams, this was one out of almost 400 tips from people around the country regarding Steve Stephens' whereabouts.
Facebook Live Incident (Summary)
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Steve shows Robert Godwin, Sr.'s body on Facebook Live
On April 16, 2017 (Easter Sunday), at about 2:00 p.m., Steve Stephens started broadcasting a video on Facebook Live from his car. He starts off by saying, "Found somebody I want to kill. I'm gonna kill this guy right here. He's an old dude, too."
Steve Stephens approached Godwin and says, "Can you do me a favor?
Can you say 'Joy Lane ?'" Puzzled at his request, Godwin repeats the name in question. Steve Stephens tells him that what is about to happen to him is because of her. Within seconds, Stevie Steve pulls a gun out and shoots Godwin in the head at point blank. He shows the dead body on the sidewalk. He then returned to his car and drove away.
About an hour later, around 3:00 p.m., Steve Stephens filmed another Facebook Live event.
He talks on the phone to someone saying that he snapped and "messed up."
claiming to have killed 12 people.
It has not been verified whether he killed other people on Easter Sunday.
[1] Steve's Facebook has been deactivated.
It was later revealed that he posted a Facebook Live video before he murdered Robert Godwin Sr. In what is being called his video manifesto, he mentions that Joy Lane was his girlfriend and they were supposed to get married. After being with her for three years, he reached a breaking point and he abruptly left her on April 14th. He also mentioned his mother, Maggie Green, and said that she created the monster he is.
In a Facebook post before the incident, Steve blames his Joy Lane for his actions. He claimed on to have killed 12 people and says, "I'm the #goodguy."
In another Facebook post, he said the number of people he killed increased to 15.
The user called it his "Easter day slaughter."
National Manhunt
Cleveland's Mayor, Frank Jackson, announces that there is a $50,000 reward for information that leads to Steve Stephens' arrest
Steve Stephens' white 2013-2017 Ford Fusion; it has temporary tags with the plate number E3636330
On the night of Robert Godwin's murder, the search turned into a multistate manhunt.
There was a $50,000 reward for information leading to Steve Stephens' arrest.
Police got in touch with him asking to turn himself in.
Stephens refused to surrender.
Steve is described as being a black male who is 6'1,'' weighs 244 pounds, has a beard.
He was wearing a dark-striped polo shirt at the time of the shooting and the Facebook Live broadcasts.
Steve was driving a white-colored 2013-2017 Ford Fusion and was registered with temporary plates. His plate numbers are E3636330.
Criminal Record
It has been stated that Steve Stephens had a clean record before April 16, 2017, when he murdered Robert Godwin, Sr. No reports of domestic violence from Steve Stephens can be found in his record. The only thing sources confirm is about a dozen traffic tickets dating back from 1999 and 2001.
Facebook's Response
A Facebook spokesperson stated the following in response to Steve Stephens' murder:
"This is a horrific incident and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook.
We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to phsical safety."
They also state that, although he did live stream a video earlier that day, the infamous video he recorded of him killing an elderly man was not live streamed and was posted to social media after the fact.
Mark Zuckerberg made a comment at the 2017 Facebook F8 event:
"We have a lot of work, and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening."
Facebook's Timeline of Events
Sources claimed that the video stayed on Facebook for three hours before they removed it, along with his account.
Justin Osofsky, Facebook's Vice President of Global Operations, also made a statement regarding the long period of time the video stayed on Facebook's platform:
"As a result of this terrible series of events, we are reviewing our reporting flows to be sure people can report videos and other material that violates our standards as easily and quickly as possible."
According to Facebook, this is the timeline of events based on what happened on April 16, 2017:
11:09 a.m. PDT (2:09 p.m. EST) — First video, of intent to murder, uploaded.
Not reported to Facebook.
11:11 a.m. PDT (2:11 p.m. EST) — Second video, of shooting, uploaded.
11:22 a.m. PDT (2:22 p.m. EST) — Suspect confesses to murder while using Live, is live for 5 minutes.
11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EST) — Live ends, and Live video is first reported shortly after.
12:59 p.m. PDT (3:59 p.m. EST)— Video of shooting is first reported.
1:22 p.m. PDT (4:22 p.m. EST) — Suspect’s account disabled; all videos no longer visible to public.
Based on the times noted above by Facebook, the video of the murder was first reported after 1 hour and 48 minutes.
Along with that, it took 23 minutes for Facebook to review the content and disable Steve Stephen's Facebook account.
CNN Panel (Video Game Comparison)
Philip DeFranco's tweet about what Brian Stelter said on the CNN
Steve Stephens being mocked on Grand Theft Auto
During a panel discussion on CNN, senior correspondent Brian Stelter made a statement comparing Steve Stephens' shooting to a video game. This is what Stelter said in full:
"[..] If you see this pop up in your social media feed, you may want to look away.
If you see a copy of this video show up somewhere.
There is an element of this that makes it look like a video game, because, if you think about it, video games are first-person shooters: people in a game, they have a controller, the gun is in front of them, and they're firing.
That is how a lot of young people experience weapons.
They experience guns as video games.
Unfortunately, a video like this, it has that same perspective, and how yet it is so real.
And the blood is so real.
And yet I've seen people online compare it to a video game.
People commenting saying, 'This looks like a game.' Very disturbing."
People on social media, particularly on Twitter, lashed out at Stelter over the comparison. One of these people was famous YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who said the following on the platform:
"FUCK YOU @CNN!
Comparing this shooting to being like a video game.
Couldn't even wait til he was caught to start posting caught to start pushing BS?"
He also posted a YouTube video expanding on his thoughts regarding the CNN panel discussion the next day. He stated the following:
"I understand that inforamtion comes in at a pretty slow pace, and you have to fill in time.
But even if you're not saying that they're not making the argument, how does comparing a man being shot in the face point blank, what benefit to the conversation do we provide by comparing it to a video game?
It seems like you're either trying to either fill time or plant the seeds for a ridiculous blame game."
Another YouTube user named Malik Thompson ironically posted a video of a Grand Theft Auto character mocking Steve Stephens and what he did in his Facebook videos. No signs point to the video's upload to be anything related to the comments made by Brian Stelter. The video's description mentions his Snapchat and Instagram usernames, along with an additional statement:
"RIP THE killed Man in the livestream Fuck Steve Stephens."
Transcript of Video Manifesto (Pre-Murder)
Steve Stephens says he lost everything he had at the Jack Cleveland Casino and the Presque Isle Downs & Casino @ in Erie County
Steve Stephens' Beech Brook badge
Steve Stephens' manifesto on Facebook Live (before murdering Robert Godwin)
Before recording a Facebook Live video of his murder of Robert Godwin, Sr., Steve Stephens uploaded another Facebook Live video earlier that day. In it, he explained he was going to go on a killing spree because of the relationship he had with his girlfriend Joy Lane and the fact that he felt his mother didn't care about his feelings. He also confessed that he murdered people before Easter Sunday 2017.
He also blames Joy Lane for his gambling issues, as well, and the fact that he lost all his money from it.
This is the transcript of the video:
"What's up, everybody.
This is Murtis Taylor, a social service agency over at 105.
The love of my love works here; her name is Joy Lane. We've been together three years. We were supposed to get married, but there was just some bullshit that I just couldn't deal with her anymore. But anyway, she's the reason why I'm making this video and she's the reason for what's about to happen today, because she fucking drove me crazy. Steve Stephens' Beech Brook badge But, you know, anyway, I work at Beech Brook. And Beech Brook is another reason why I'm going crazy. So... (pulls out his badge) this is my badge here. That's me. So, I'm just making this to say fuck Beech Brook and Murtis Taylor. You know... (flips over his phone) This past year has been really fucked up for me. You know, being with Joy, she drove me crazy; she started making me gamble; I lost everything. I lost everything I had, man; I don't have shit. I'm out of options, and I'm just on some murder-type shit. So, what I'm gonna do is-- because she works over here at Murtis Taylor - this is over at 105 - I'm gonna try to kill as many people as I can over here. You know, so, fuck Murtis Taylor and fuck Joy Lane. And it's fucked up too, because, you know, I never really been on no sucker shit like this; this is some sucker shit. You know, but, we're all human, man, you know, and I guess we all got breaking points. I went to my mother's yesterday - I was trying to talk to my mother. But, I guess it was the way I was raised. She didn't give a fuck, man. I was telling my mother I was on some suicidal-type shit, I was about to kill some people. Didn't care. Steve Stephens' manifesto on Facebook Live (before murdering Robert Godwin) I don't know something about me, but it don't matter. You know, people come at me with their problems. You know, I'm a case manager at Beech Brook. You know, I deal with people's problems every day, but when it comes to my shit, nobody gives a fuck. It's like I'm always the bad guy. It don't matter what the fuck I do. People always [take] it out on me. And you know, this is fucked up, man, because innocent people about to die today. Hopefully, I'm gonna try to kill as many people as I can and be on death row, whatever the case may be. But I just don't give a fuck no more. I'm just, you know, I'm beat, I'm tired, you know. I will say this, though: the people I'm going to kill today - it's Easter Sunday- it's not my first. I got a few people that's over here off of - the street is 108th and Cedar - it's an abandonded house, I kind of lost count honestly. I got some people on... off of [?] road. It's a purple and gold church; I don't know the name of the street, but it's in a backhouse there. Let's see... 42nd and Payne. I got somebody there. I mean, that doesn't matter, because I didn't keep score. But I'm gonna keep score today. But yeah, I'm about to have me some fun, I guess. And this shit is weird, man, because, like I said, I never been on no sucker shit like this. But, fuck it. You know... Oh yeah. After I hit these people here over on St. Claire, I'm gonna start fucking with Greeks. I'm gonna start randomly shooting Greeks in the head. Fuck it. I'm gonna target whoever. I don't even give a fuck. Until I get caught. So yeah. I'll make some more videos later. But this is what it is. So, yeah. Steve Stephens, 37, the thing that's about to happen in the next few minutes, you can blame it on - her name is Joy Lane; it's all her fault. My mother, too. Put her in there. Maggie Stephens, or Maggie Green she goes by. It's her fault, too, because she's the one who created this fucking monster that I am. Yeah, so between them two. All right, yeah, I'll see you in a minute."
Personal Life
Stephens is the nephew of the late Reverend Whitty G. Stephens Jr. Steve has filed for bankruptcy in 2015. This may have been a result of the gambling issue to which he alludes in the Facebook Live video he recorded before shooting Robert Godwin.
A spokesperson from Presque Isle Downs & Casino said that Steve Stephens last came to the casino in March.
In addition, he owed thousands of dollars to payday loan companies and collection agencies. His last known address is in Twinsburg.
College
Stephens graduated from Myers College, a for-profit school which focused on business in 2002. The school was later renamed Myers University and Chancellor University before shutting down in 2013. While at Myers, Stephen was involved in the school's Omega Psi Phi fraternity chapter. The fraternity brothers say Stephens has not been an active member for years, and they have not spoken with him in several months. They also said that they are saddened by what happened and have extended their deepest sympathies to the family of the victim, 74-year-old Robert Godwin, Sr.
Financial Woes
Stephens had declared bankruptcy in 2015.
His attorney was Trent Binger. He was in debt from gambling and buying a new car. At the time he committed murder, his wages from work were being garnished to pay his debts. Stephens was also evicted from two apartments for not paying rent.