Shocking details regarding the Cleveland gunman who murdered an elderly man during a broadcast on Facebook Live have surfaced.
37-year-old Steve Stephens reportedly shares one particularly disturbing similarity with many rapists and serial killers. One of his neighbors, Troy Henderson, revealed that Stephens liked to torture animals as a kid.
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“That kid was not normal as we as normal people know it from the beginning,” Henderson said. “He was in his early teens when the family moved in there, and I was in my late 20s, but I could see something wasn’t right. [Stephens] was smart, but some days he seemed OK with talking to people on the street, but on other days he was staring off into space with a blank face. He was very up and down.”
Henderson, who knew Stephens since the murder suspect was a teenager, then described the moment in which Stephens invited him over and demonstrated highly concerned behavior.
“He asked me to come in and see his pet bird, so I went in their house,” Henderson said. “He had a parakeet and he had that bird crawl from the cage and onto his finger. Then he slapped the bird as hard as he could with his other hand, and the bird was lying on the floor. The bird looked dead to me. I looked at him and he was smiling and laughing as he looked at me and that bird.”
Scientists have found a link between animal abuse and human violence through decades of research. Multiple notorious serial killers would torture animals before killing humans. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer reportedly killed frogs, cat, and dogs in a sadistic manner before going on a cannibalistic murder spree.
Tony Henderson mentioned that Stephens’ behavior was alarming even before killing Robert Godwin on Easter Sunday.
“Hey, animals don’t make you weird like that,” Henderson said. “[Stephens] was that way before he got that bird. Heard he used to torture other pets he had. He was like that from the time I first met him.”
On Tuesday morning, the police located Stephens. The authorities found Stephens at a McDonald’s in Erie, Pennsylvania. A brief chase ensued after finding Stephens and he eventually killed himself before the police could bring him into custody.
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[H/T New York Post]
