A Sacramento family is demanding answers after authorities said a migrant who had been detained at the border and later released went on to harass a local woman for months before fatally shooting her in broad daylight after she sought court protection.
Rohit Rohit, a 22-year-old Indian national, was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents in August 2023 while allegedly trying to enter the United States through Arizona, officials said.
He was released the following month under an “order of recognizance,” a policy used in immigration cases that critics have tied to the Biden administration’s border enforcement approach.
According to federal officials, the Department of Homeland Security lost contact with Rohit after his release.
Nearly two years later, investigators say, Rohit began targeting 38-year-old Shalini Thakur, an IHOP waitress he reportedly met while picking up DoorDash orders from the restaurant where she worked.
As the alleged harassment and abuse escalated, Thakur obtained a restraining order against Rohit in an effort to keep him away.
Authorities said Rohit violated that order in July by showing up at Thakur’s home again, just weeks before she was killed Tuesday outside a café in an attack that has left her relatives blaming a system they say failed her.
“I am alone in this world,” her mother, Sudesh Kumari, told reporters in the aftermath of her daughter’s death.
“Restraining order after restraining order … police did not protect my daughter,” Kumari said.
Sheriff’s deputies said they had been communicating with Thakur for months about Rohit’s alleged harassment and had urged her to pursue the restraining order she ultimately filed in July.
Federal immigration officials, however, now argue Rohit should not have been in the country at the time of the killing.
“This tragedy would have been completely avoided if it weren’t for the Biden administration releasing this killer into our country,” a DHS spokesperson said.
“Sanctuary politicians must put an end to reckless policies that play Russian roulette with American lives.” Federal official said it’s unclear how Rohit came to be in Mexico, or how he was caught attempting to cross into the US.
“But he was apprehended in an arid, remote area near Yuma and booked into custody at the ICE staging facility in Florence, Arizona.
Rohit was held in Florence before being moved to the agency’s processing center in Folkston, Georgia, in a rural area near the Florida border that that holds about 3,000 adult male non-citizens who are in immigration proceedings or awaiting deportation.
Federal authorities released Rohit in September 2023 for no apparent reason, in a tactic immigration officials refer to as “catch and release.”
He then made his way to California, where later he met, stalked and killed Thakur.
Former DHS spokeswoman Katie Zacharia said the agency made a mistake when it released Rohit instead of returning him to his home county.
“It is very typical with the Biden ‘catch and release,’” said Zacharia, “These types of policies kill American citizens or put American citizens’ lives at risk in one way or another,” she added.
“These are the types of individuals that ICE and the ERO should be removing and sending back to their home countries, and yet you get so much pushback from governors like Gavin Newsom,” she added.
California’s sanctuary state laws prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts, something that could have led to Rohit being detained or deported after he was reported to police at least twice before he killed Thakur.
After Rohit chased and gunned Thakur down in front of a Panera Bread, he followed her as she stumbled into a parking lot. As she lay on the ground, he shot her again in the head at close range.
He then sped off, but a witness took a photo of his car and sent it to police, who spotted and stopped him seven minutes later on eastbound on Highway 50, about two miles away. Rohit engaged deputies in a standoff before shooting and killing himself in the vehicle.
Sacramento Sherriff Jim Cooper said only a quick response from law enforcement prevented Rohit from inflicting more carnage.
“I believe that individual was headed somewhere else to do someone else harm,” said Cooper.
