Murder-suicide: Man kills woman day after she gets restraining order against him
FRESNO, California -- A California man allegedly killed his child's mother and then killed himself Saturday morning, one day after the mother got a restraining order against him.
Police got calls about the murder-suicide in southeast Fresno just after 9 a.m.
Officers found Kimieona Holt, 26 dead from a gunshot wound in the bedroom of a home.
Officers tracked down William Francisco Rivera, 40 about a block away, but they say he pointed a handgun to his temple and ran away.
"He stopped," said Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer. "He turned. He faced the officers. He was still armed with that handgun and he placed it up to his head, fired one round and took his own life."
Dyer said Rivera killed Holt, with whom he shared a 1-year-old child. The child was not a witness to any of Saturday's violence.
A judge granted Holt a domestic violence restraining order Friday, but Rivera violated it Saturday morning. Holt called a sister, but the phone line went silent so family members immediately called police.
"What we have in our city is a small child that's going to grow up without its parents," said Dyer.
Police say Rivera had a history of domestic violence.
It's been less than a month since police announced that domestic violence cases were up by 35 percent compared to the year before - something Nicole Linder of the Marjaree Mason Center has seen firsthand.
"And this was a no-win situation, and now we have a child without a mother or father," Linder says.
As the Marjaree Mason Center continues to see an overcapacity at its shelter for victims, Linder stressed the importance of keeping the conversation about domestic violence going.
"Until we get to the place where we are talking about it, we're going to perpetuate these cycles," she said.
Holt's mother told police that she was a foster parent to many children in Fresno.
"We do know there are a lot of kids out there who are going to be hurting because their foster parent being killed," Dyer said.
