Sacramento deputies had probable cause to arrest an Indian national who later allegedly killed a California waitress, but authorities said they were unable to locate him before the fatal ambush.
Rohit Rohit, 22, allegedly shot and killed 38-year-old Shalini Thakur on Tuesday outside a Panera Bread in Sacramento.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said deputies and detectives made at least two attempts to locate Rohit after Thakur reported that he had violated a restraining order she secured against him. Both efforts were unsuccessful.
Thakur believed Rohit had violated the May 29 order by ordering or delivering groceries to her on July 29.
“If we made contact with him, yeah, I am certain there would have been an arrest,” Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Amar Gandhi told KCRA. “But again, there was no contact made.”
Deputies also checked locations where Rohit was known to spend time. Gandhi acknowledged that investigators did not initiate a “large-scale manhunt” for him after the alleged restraining-order violation.
“There’s not going to be a massive, large-scale manhunt for this person,” Gandhi said. “But there is follow-up. There is stuff done.”
Gandhi said the alleged violation was treated as a lower-level misdemeanor. Had Rohit been arrested, he could have been cited or booked while prosecutors and a judge reviewed the case and decided how to proceed.
The incident was not classified as domestic violence because Thakur and Rohit had not been romantically involved, according to the spokesperson. Gandhi said Thakur characterized their relationship as a friendship.
Rohit met Thakur in 2025 while she was working as a waitress at IHOP. He delivered DoorDash orders from the restaurant where she worked.
According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and court documents, Rohit’s conduct grew increasingly disturbing over the course of the year.
He allegedly threatened to kill both Thakur and himself on multiple occasions. He placed an Apple AirTag on her car to track her movements, copied her house key without permission and appeared at her workplace every day. On one occasion, he slashed her tires, then followed her and offered to change them after she pulled over.
Asked whether the Sheriff’s Office could have done more before Thakur’s killing, Gandhi said no.
“It’s just the sad truth of it all. These cases, they come in every day,” Gandhi said. “These detectives do have stacks of these cases, and they do follow up on these cases literally every day.”
“To say that nothing was done is absolutely incorrect,” Gandhi said.
California’s sanctuary state laws also limited the Sheriff’s Office’s ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities who could potentially have taken Rohit into custody.
Department of Homeland Security officials arrested Rohit in August 2023 after he crossed into the US at the Arizona border. He was released on an “order of recognizance” during the Biden administration just a month later, and DHS said he remained in the country illegally.
Gandhi acknowledged the limitations of what he called an “imperfect justice system.”
With Thakur and Rohit both dead, the victim’s family is left without justice or their loved one.
“I am alone in this world,” Sudesh Kumari told reporters after her daughter’s death. “Restraining order after restraining order… police did not protect my daughter.”
“She loved them all. She loved everyone.”
Sheriff’s officials previously said the quick response from law enforcement prevented Rohit from inflicting more carnage.
“I believe that individual was headed somewhere else to do someone else harm,” Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper said.
