On April 16th, Easter Sunday, Steve Stephens recorded himself on Facebook live murdering a 74-year old man on his way home from spending time with his family. He showed his ID in the video and was explaining that what he is doing is because of an ordeal with his ex-girlfriend. Now after a three day man hunt he was found at a McDonalds, tipped off to police about his whereabouts. Unfortunately, he took his own life in his car.
I was confused and disgusted why would a man live stream himmself doing such a horrific act in cold blood? Why would he put himself out there in the likelihood that he will get caught even faster because of the proof and the spread of the news? There is no doubt he did this and there was hard evidence now against him.
The answer is not too shocking.
Just like past criminals, they all have their own special story, and that is how they are remembered. We all know the names and stories of infamous serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dammer and Richard Ramirez. People study them and are always interested in what was going through their minds and why they would commit such heinous acts.
A murder is a murder but doing something such as live streaming and having proof is because they want to be known for doing that act. They want to be known for being the ones that came up with the idea and that they knew they would get the attention for it. I've heard him being called the Facebook Killer which just helped feed that inner ego. When we hear the name we then remember their acts and stories.
Copy cat murders are real and some will go as far as to one up other murders to gain the glory. By putting it on social media and putting it out there he is receiving those reactions and those comments/likes immediately. Seeking attention for his actions and providing a platform for that just makes it easier to gain those reactions in that second he was live streaming the whole ordeal. This attention seeking behavior is what could have possibly caused him to do this in the first place to gain attention from others and he wanted to put blame on those that drove him to do it. It is an unfortunate situation.
My condolences go out to the victim and the families involved. This is a tragedy that should have not occurred.
