Police tracked down the 'Facebook killer' after McDonald's employees held up his French fry order

The "Facebook killer" may have been taken down by a group of McDonald's employees in the town of Erie, Pennsylvania.

Steve Stephens gained the notorious pseudonym after he posted a video of himself shooting and killing a man on Facebook on Sunday.

He died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Tuesday afternoon following a brief pursuit by Pennsylvania state police.

Before the car chase, however, Stephens stopped at a McDonald's drive-through and placed a 20-piece order for Chicken McNuggets, and a large order of fries for $5.35, restaurant manager Henry Sayers told the New York Times.

One of the employees at the restaurant recognized Stephens as the man who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt, and workers tried to make Stephens wait by giving him his chicken nuggets but holding up his order of fries, while calling the police to report Stephens' whereabouts.

"But he just took his nuggets and said, 'I have to go,' and he drove off," Sayers told the Times, noting that Stephens didn't speed away from the restaurant, but drove away at a normal speed.

When police tracked down Stephens' vehicle, they pursued him while trying to get him to pull over. As officers approached his vehicle, Stephens committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, Pennsylvania state police said on Tuesday.

Stephens had been fleeing law enforcement officials since Sunday, when news broke that he had posted several disturbing videos on Facebook. The main one was a video he took of himself murdering 74-year-old Robert Godwin after Godwin had just had an Easter meal with his children. Facebook took the video down, as well as other videos Stephens posted, and disabled his Facebook account within a few hours.

SEE ALSO: 'Facebook killer' Steve Stephens found dead in Pennsylvania

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