Chilling footage emerges as knifeman slashes Oprah-linked activist, kills her mom — as motives emerge

This is the chilling moment armed SWAT officers captured a knifeman accused of slashing an Oprah Winfrey-linked activist and killing her mother.

Ring doorbell footage showed Sergio Fraire, 30, being led away in handcuffs following the horrific attack in Burbank, California, early Monday.

High-flying mental health activist Meera Varma, 25, was injured and her teacher mother Arti, 59, died from stab wounds.

Cops said they are looking at three possible motives, including whether the suspect knew Meera through her mental health program, if he had a relative who taught at Arti’s school, or whether he was her student.

Video obtained by the California Post showed the moment officers raided Fraire’s father’s house two miles away from the attack.

The doorbell footage from a neighbor shows him being led away in handcuffs before police put him in the back of a cruiser and booked him into jail.

Earlier video shows officers at a neighbor’s house showing pictures of the suspect and asking if the homeowner could identify him.

Burbank Police Department Lieutenant Brent Fekety told the Post, “We’re still trying to figure out why he was at their house, and what he was doing there.”

He said there were no signs of forced entry, nothing was taken from the house and revealed it was Meera who had dialed 911 after she was stabbed around 6am.

Fekety also revealed the suspect sprinted the entire two miles between the scene of the attack and where he was detained.

He added it was unclear if Meera or her mother were the targets, but said they had spoken to her briefly after she got out of surgery.

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Meera is prominent mental health activist who has worked with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey on mental-health initiatives.

She was a vocal advocate for suicide prevention and gave a Tedx talk on the subject in 2023. She spoke in extremely personal terms on suicide, noting that she contemplated suicide in April 2018.

“We may think that we have six degrees of separation between ourselves and a person who has been affected by suicide,” she said.

“But I can guarantee that you all have only one degree of separation between yourself and a person who almost died by suicide. And that someone is me.”

Meera said her mother, Arti, comforted her as she lay crying on her bedroom floor that April day.

“My mom squeezed me even tighter, looked me directly in the eyes and said, ‘I love you. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. I’m here,’” she said.

Her mother was a a second-grade teacher at Bret Harte Elementary School in the Burbank school district.

She’s the second teacher from the school to be killed in recent years. Her friends mourned her death, and called her a “bright” and “joyful” figure.

“She was an amazing teacher, and she loved being a teacher,” the victim’s friend Cristina Strattan told ABC 7. “She was such a bright light. She was always so joyful, so proud of her kids.”

Meera’s father, Arti’s husband, was in India at the time of the stabbing.