please bear in mind this investigation is in the very early stages and we will take questions, but there is still some information to be gathered. speaking this afternoon will be mayor frank jackson, chief calvin williams, steve anthony, and pete elliott, u.s. marshal. mayor? we have closure in regards to the search for steve stephens. the chief in law enforcement will give you the detales of that. i want to give our con ddolence for the godwin family, and the way they have handled this tragic situation for them and for the community at large. also want to thank the community. there was a lot of support in terms of family, law enforcement
whice vehie s stopped. steve took his own life. were you expesuspecting that was there because of the ping yesterday? we searched that area prior. we searched that area initially on sunday when we got that ping in that area. we were in a process today of going back and doing a more thorough search of that area. both ground and air assets when this transpired. you said previously that steve stephens killed himself or he was being helped, do you believe anyone harbored him? we don t know, anyone that has been that way, east and the erie, pa area knows there are a lot of places to hide. there are a lot of remote areas, a lot of woods, farms, barns, things like that. so until we can get our
in the middle of all of this, we were talking about facebook now on defense, saying we know we have to do better, this is not the only video where a murder or a suicide or something else that they don t want on their social media has been there. so they re working on that. meanwhile the investigation or the search is closed. steve stephens is dead, and the family was out here. pleading with people to come forward, pleading with people who may know anything about him, talking to the police, it appears the public responded in force. that is a lot tips in the last 24 hours or so and it paid off. all of those press conferences. all of that reaching out to the public seems to have paid off. thank you for continuing to follow this. a major story, and a conclusion
of the q and a, and the news conference they announced the death just a little over an hour ago in erie, pennsylvania after a brief police chase follow ag citizen s tip that steve step n stephens was in that white car and the suspect had been found in erie, pennsylvania. we heard from the chief agent of the fbi and the major of cleveland. jacob rascon is in cleveland with the latest. jacob, this is an extraordinary series of events that started a little over 24 hours ago with this horrendous brazen murder of a total stranger, a random killing, and a man coming to the end of his ropes. and we can now look back at the time line of all of this. it was midday on sunday, easter
steve stephens took his own life. we re grateful to the people that gave this tip to the pennsylvania state police. we re grateful this ended. we would have preferred it not ended this way. there are a lot of questions for the family and the city in general that they would have had for steve as to why this transpired. again our condolences are still with the family, mr. godwin. you heard them on the news lately. they were forgiving. excuse me. they were forgiving of steve for committing this atrocious act, and we need to follow their lead. as the mayor stated, there are other victims in the city and around this country, and we continue to work hard to bring closure to those families, also. there are a lot of things about this we don t know. a lot of circumstances that