Cleveland police searching for man who broadcast killing on Facebook

Police identified the man as Steve Stephens and have placed a bounty of $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

A man who identified himself as Stevie Steve is seen in a combination of stills from a video he broadcast of himself on Facebook in Cleveland, Ohio, US, April 16, 2017.
TRT World and Agencies

A man who identified himself as Stevie Steve is seen in a combination of stills from a video he broadcast of himself on Facebook in Cleveland, Ohio, US, April 16, 2017.

Cleveland police were searching for a suspect they said broadcast video of himself on Facebook killing a person on Sunday and claiming that he had murdered others.

The Cleveland Division of Police said it was looking for Steve Stephens in connection with the killing of an individual in the city, whom police did not identify.

"Suspect did broadcast the killing on Facebook Live, and has claimed to have committed multiple other homicides which are yet to be verified," the police said in a statement, referring to social media network Facebook Inc's live-streaming video service.

TRT World's Kate Fisher has more details.

Police said that Stephens might be driving a white or cream-coloured sports utility vehicle.​

In January, four black people in Chicago were accused of attacking an 18-year-old disabled white man and broadcasting the attack on Facebook Live while making anti-white racial taunts. The incident prompted international outrage.

A month later, the accused pleaded not guilty to assaulting the man, whom prosecutors described as schizophrenic.

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