Man arrested in stabbing death of 61-year old woman

A 49-year-old man is accused of fatally stabbing a woman and injuring a man who tried to intervene in his alleged domestic violence assault in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood on Wednesday.

Arthur Finch was arrested at about noon, 20 minutes after allegedly stabbing  61-year-old Veronica Soliz and 50-year-old man who had attempted to come to the aid of the domestic violence victim at the intersection of Ellis and Leavenworth streets.

Officers had responded to a report of a person down and they arrived to find Soliz suffering from a stab wound to the head, police said. Soliz was taken to a hospital and was pronounced dead.

Police soon learned that a second stabbing victim, the 50-year-old man, had arrived at a hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening.

Soliz, a former ballerina, was stabbed after attempting to video Finch allegedly assaulting a woman outside her Ellis Street hotel room, the Chronicle reported.

Witnesses provided descriptions of the suspect and vehicle, which officers found and contacted in the first block of Brookdale Avenue in The City’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood.

They detained the 43-year-old woman driving the car, and while she was being questioned, Finch came out of a nearby home and matched the description of the stabbing suspect, according to police.

Finch was arrested and booked into county jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, felony domestic assault, elder abuse, possession and use of a dangerous weapon, mayhem, and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.

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