More than 30 Philadelphia schools were placed on lockdown for nearly two hours on Monday afternoon due to an unconfirmed sighting of Steve Stephens, the fugitive who posted a video of himself murdering a man on Facebook.
Around 12:30 PM police received multiple 911 calls claiming that Stephens was in West Fairmount Park, which is located 9 minutes from Penn's campus on Reservoir Drive.
Officers from five different precincts responded to the calls and police vehicles and helicopters began patrolling the area, NBC Philadelphia reported.
At 2:55 PM the lockdowns were lifted after the police concluded that Stephens was not actually in the area, reported CBS Philadelphia.
The department released a Facebook post reporting that there was "no indication" that Stephens was in Philadelphia at 2:59 PM.
Stephens, a 37 year old counselor for teens and young adults, has been on the run for the past two days.
In the Facebook video, which has since been taken down, Stephens claims to have killed 13 other people, though police have only been able to link him to the murder of Robert Godwin in Cleveland.
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On Tuesday CNN reported Stephens’ car was spotted near Erie, PA. Erie is a town in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania which is about a 6 and a half hour drive from Philadelphia and 100 miles from Cleveland, where the murder occurred. When state troopers chased the car, a trooper strategically rammed into the car to disable it, and as the car was out of control Stephens killed himself by shooting himself in the head.
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