Cleveland murder suspect kills himself after brief police pursuit

A Cleveland murder suspect, who posted a video of killing an old man on Facebook, has shot himself dead in Pennsylvania after a brief pursuit, the state police says.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania police confirmed that Steve Stephens had died after committing suicide following a brief chase in Erie County.

"As the vehicle was spinning out of control from the PIT [precision immobilization technique] maneuver, Stephens pulled a pistol and shot himself in the head," police later explained.

A manhunt was launched by US law enforcement authorities on Sunday to find the deranged suspect, who streamed a video of killing a 74-year-old man, Robert Godwin, in Cleveland, Ohio, on Facebook.

In the video, which was quickly removed, Stephens approaches Godwin, while walking home from an Easter meal with his children in the Glenville neighborhood, and fatally shoots him in the head after telling him to say “Joy Lane,” believed to be the name of Stephens’ ex-girlfriend.

After killing Godwin, Stephens posted another video from his car claiming that he has killed 15 other people, an allegation with no evidence, according to Cleveland police.

Maggie Green, Stephens’ mother, later told the police that her son had stopped by her house on Saturday, saying that this was the last time she was going to see him. According to his mother, they also had a brief phone conversation the next day, in which Stephens expressed anger about his girlfriend.

"We're grateful that this has ended," Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said during a press conference following confirmation of Stephens’ death.

"We would prefer that it had not ended this way because there are a lot of questions, I'm sure, that not only the family but the city in general would have had for Steve," Williams noted.

Meanwhile, Brenda Haymon, Godwin's daughter, said she learned about Stephens's death while she was planning for the funeral of her father.

"All I can say is that I wish he had gone down in a hail of 100 bullets," Haymon said. "I wish it had gone down like that instead of him shooting himself."

Statistics by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that firearms kill more than 33,000 people in the US every year, a number that includes accidental discharges, murders and suicides.

It is estimated that there are between 270 million and 300 million guns in the US, about one per person.

In early March, US President Donald Trump drew fire by approving a bill that removes legal restrictions for people with severe mental illness to purchase firearms. 

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