A 28-year-old woman in San Rafael was arrested Monday after allegedly stabbing her mother to death while on Facebook Live, in the midst of what appears to have been a mental health crisis.
Tonantzyn Oris Beltran is in police custody, suspected of the murder of her 55-year-old mother, Olivia Beltran, the immediate aftermath of which was observed by arriving police officers.
San Rafael police say they received multiple reports Monday, just before 5 p.m., of a domestic incident and possible stabbing at an apartment in the Terra Linda complex, on Cresta Way in San Rafael.
"When officers arrived, they were directed to an apartment’s rear balcony, where they saw Beltran on a balcony holding a knife in her hand, standing next to a stabbed female victim, and her clothes soaked in blood," the San Rafael Police Department (SRPD) says in a release. "Beltran was not readily responsive to officers’ commands and directions."
While police engaged with the suspect on the balcony, another group of officers broke though the front door of the residence and subdued the suspect. Paramedics rendered aid to the mother, and she was transported to an area hospital.
"Hospital staff made every effort to save the victim’s life but were unable to overcome the extensive life-threatening injuries," the SRPD says. "An hour and a half later, the victim was pronounced deceased."
Police detectives quickly learned that the stabbing may have been broadcast on Facebook Live, and calls to police came both from people in the apartment complex and watching the incident unfold on Facebook.
Disturbingly, as KTVU notes, Tonantzyn Beltran had been posting videos of interactions with her mother on TikTok throughout the day on Monday.
In one video, a visibly tearful Olivia Beltran speaks to her daughter in a car outside their home mostly in Spanish, and partly in English, telling her she needs to get rest, and "calm down, and stay grounded." She says, "If you are concerned for the Palestinian [people], you gotta just rest, and you gotta pray for them."
As her mother is telling her she needs to sleep, the daughter can be heard on the video saying, "I promise you will sleep tonight... infinitely."
In another video from the same day (see below), apparently shot in the lobby of the San Rafael Police Department, a police officer tells Olivia Beltran that he is not comfortable allowing the daughter to drive, saying that she appears to be having a mental health episode. The daughter had apparently just been arrested, though the circumstances are unclear.
The murder appears to have happened hours after these videos were shot and posted.
Meta reportedly removed the Facebook Live video after the fact.
Sgt. Justin Graham, a public information officer for the SRPD, tells SFGate, "Sergeant detectives are still collecting information and background history to make a determination what the motive may have been. There is history, and we're going through that history as part of the investigative process."
A longtime friend of Olivia Beltran, Solange Echeverria, tells KTVU, "I still can't believe it. It's a huge loss, and we're still reeling from it."
Echeverria added, "She loved her kids and she was always fighting for them. Olivia wanted to make the world a better place for everyone."
Top image: The Terra Linda complex in San Rafael, via Google Street View