A 37-year-old Cleveland man murdered an elderly man in broad daylight on Sunday and posted a video of the killing on Facebook.
The gunman, Steve Stephens, referred to the murder as “the Easter Day slaughter.”
Stephens, who is still on the run, blamed gambling debts and a fight with his ex-girlfriend for the shooting.
“She’s the reason why this is about to happen to you,” Stephens says in the video as he approached his victim, identified later on Sunday as 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr.
In one post, Stephens wrote that he “lost everything” to gambling.
Stephens claimed in one Facebook post to have killed 12 other people. In another post, he claimed to have killed 15. Cleveland police have yet to find other victims.
#BREAKING, this is the post that suspect Steve Stephens posted on Facebook as he shot a man LIVE. If you see him call 911. @cleveland19news pic.twitter.com/WMbMbDRe3t
— Tia A. Ewing (@TIA_EWING) April 16, 2017
In one of his videos, Stephens identifies himself as a case manager at Beech Brook, a mental health facility that helps vulnerable children.
“I lost everything I had, man. I don’t have shit. I’m out of options,” Stephens said in one video recorded outside of his ex-girlfriend’s workplace.
“Hopefully I’m going to try to kill as many people as I can, and I’m going to be on death row, whatever the case may be.”
Update: Facebook says the video of the shooting was not broadcast live, as police initially said, but was uploaded after being recorded.