A HUGE manhunt is under way for a suspect who police in Ohio said shot and killed an elderly passer-by and posted the killing on Facebook.
Steve Stephens, 37, is wanted on a charge of aggravated murder in connection with the death of Robert Godwin Sr in Cleveland.
Police have warned residents of the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan to be on the lookout for Stephens, who they said may have travelled out of Ohio.
In the video, which appears shaky, Stephens gets out of his car and appears to randomly target Godwin, 74, who is holding a plastic shopping bag. Stephens ask him to repeat the name of a woman, which Godwin does not seem to recognise.
“She’s the reason that this is about to happen to you,” Stephens tells Godwin before pointing a gun at him. Godwin can be seen shielding his face with the shopping bag.
Facebook said the suspect went live on the social media website at one point during the day but not during the killing. Police had earlier claimed that Stephens had broadcast the shooting on Facebook Live.
The video of the killing was on Facebook for about three hours before it was removed. Stephens’s Facebook page also was eventually taken down.
“This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook,” said a company spokesman. “We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety.”
The victim’s son, Robert Godwin Jr, told Cleveland.com he could not bring himself to watch the video.
“I haven’t watched the video. I haven’t even looked at my cellphone or the news,” he said. “I don’t really want to see it.”
It was also revealed yesterday that Facebook is promoting paid-for hoaxes about Alan Sugar, Professor Stephen Hawking and the Queen to its users despite recent promises to crack down on fake news.
The world’s biggest social network was found to be taking money from hoaxers who place the misleading adverts in the right column of newsfeed, where it is less clear to users how to block or report the posts.
When made aware of the hoax adverts by investigators at the Press Association, a Facebook spokesman said the company works “constantly to reduce any type of misinformation”.
One of the adverts claimed Apprentice star Sugar was “out of control” and featured an apparently manipulated picture of the Amstrad founder with bruises on his face.
Facebook users who clicked the advert were taken to a page made to look like The Sun newspaper website, in which Sugar is quoted as supporting a money-making scheme.
“The claims made in these advertisements are baseless and entirely false,” said Sugar’s spokesman Andrew Bloch, adding that the business magnate was aware of the adverts and was working on “legal remedies”.
The advertised scheme promises earnings of $50,000 to $200,000 dollars (£39,950 to £159,900) per week and uses stock footage of a high-flying lifestyle and actors in its promotional material. It has been widely derided as a scam by internet users.
“Lord Sugar does not condone, endorse or use these services and has been intentionally misrepresented in an attempt to deceive the public,” Bloch added.
The discovery of the adverts comes as the social network makes high-profile efforts to tackle misinformation on the platform.
Last week the network unveiled another new initiative in a “multi-pronged strategy” to tackle the problem – offering users advice for spotting hoaxes that appear in their newsfeeds.
Facebook has also engaged with news publishers in the US, Germany and France to alert users to content called into question by independent fact-checkers.
The site has relied heavily on reporting from users, and allows them to flag up stories they believe to be false by clicking a button on the post.
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