Facebook murder suspect kills self during police chase

The ruthless killer who gunned down a Cleveland grandfather and posted the murder on Facebook took his own life in his car Tuesday while being chased by police in Pennsylvania, officials said.

Steve Stephens, 37, was in a McDonald’s parking lot in Erie County, Pa., where a resident spotted him and called the police, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters shortly after the saga ended.

Pennsylvania state police gave chase as Stephens took off in his white Ford Fusion, but he stopped and blew himself away when troopers approached his car, Williams said.

Stephens “was spotted this morning by PSP members in Erie County. After a brief pursuit, Stephens shot and killed himself,” Pennsylvania state police said in a tweet.

The Cleveland police chief said the area around Erie was scoured Sunday after officials received reports of a ping from Stephens’ cellphone there.

“We were in the process today of going back to do a more thorough search when this transpired,” he said.

Police officials said troopers giving chase stopped Stephens’ car with a Precision Immobilization Technique, known as a “PIT” maneuver.

A pursuing trooper vehicle tapped Stephens’ car, causing him to lose control and screech to a halt.

“As the vehicle was spinning out of control from the PIT maneuver, Stephens pulled a pistol and shot himself in the head,” troopers reported via Facebook.

The chase, which never went above 50 mph, involved four State Police squad cars and several members of the Wesleyville ­Police Department, officials said.

“We’re grateful that this has ended,” Williams said. “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.”

The sudden end to the nationwide manhunt followed two days of frantic searches that ended in dead ends and expressions of grief and forgiveness by the family of Robert Godwin Sr., 74, a grandfather of 14.

Godwin’s daughter Brenda Haymon learned of Stephens’ apparent suicide as she was planning funeral arrangements for her dad.

“All I can say is that I wish he had gone down in a hail of one hundred bullets,” Haymon told CNN. “I wish it had gone down like that instead of him shooting himself.”

The FBI had put Stephens on its Most Wanted list, and authorities offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture to face a charge of aggravated murder.

Stephens shot Godwin in Cleveland as he was walking home from dinner on Easter Sunday, authorities said.

He posted a video of the murder on Facebook, along with another video in which he threatened to kill others and claimed he had already killed 13 people — though police said Godwin was the only known victim.

Images of Stephens’ bearded face were plastered on billboards, social media sites and on TV screens across the country — leading to more than 400 tips pouring in before he took his life.

“When people go on the run like this, at some point in time, they need help,” Williams told a news conference earlier Tuesday.

The incident was the latest crime posted on Facebook, reviving questions about horrific videos making it onto the giant social network. The gruesome footage eventually was yanked.

Facebook said it disabled Stephens’ account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the incident and has since announced it was launching a review of the process for reporting harmful content, AFP reported.

Police would not speculate on Stephens’ motive for the cold-blooded killing, but it emerged that he had been saddled with crushing gambling debts and had filed for bankruptcy two years ago despite holding down a job as a job counselor with a behavioral health agency.

He also had trouble with his girlfriend, Joy Lane, whose name he told Godwin to say before he shot him. He said on video that he had planned to marry her but did not, without saying why.

In the video of the shooting, Stephens told Godwin: “She’s the reason that this is about to happen to you.”

Lane said in a text message to CBS that “we had been in a relationship for several years. I am sorry that all of this has happened.”