The story of the man dubbed the "Facebook killer" rocked the entire country, because Stephens posted the video of the murder on Facebook.

The video then stayed up for several hours, viewed by millions of people, around the world.

Erie News Now sat down with a mental health expert, to learn what may drive someone to do this.

Steve Stephens became nationally known, even internationally known, within minutes of posting the horrific video of him shooting and killing an elderly man, who was simply walking down the street.

It was a video so horrifying, the news of it went viral in moments.

Afterward, Stephens posted another video, ranting about his recent breakup, and terrible life.

Stephens' Facebook was eventually deactivated, about three hours after he posted the video, but not before the videos were grabbed and shared around the world.

Dr. Mandy Fauble is the Executive Director of Safe Harbor Behavioral Health of UPMC Hamot.

She says social media offers users an outlet for people to be heard.

And they know they can gain national notoriety from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, "Sometimes when people are really struggling and they're at a crisis point, and they're feeling like no one gets it, no one hears, no one knows how bad I'm hurting, or how angry I am, sometimes it's a way of really forcing people to hear it," said Dr. Fauble. 

Dr. Fauble says while Facebook creates ways to combat violence from spreading, she says it's also up to everyday users to do their part. We're consumed with social media, so she says we need to be conscious how we use it and how much, "The general public for those of us that are consuming it, we want to really pay attention to how we react to it, and how we talk about it, so we're not indirectly sending that message that this is a good idea to cope with your feelings or that it is a good idea to help work through things or hurt other people in a way to feel better," Dr. Fauble said.

Facebook currently has a feature to report abusive content, but admits more needs to be done.

Dr. Fauble says you can also contact Safe Harbor's Crisis Services if you notice someone locally is posting frightening or abusive content on social media.