Sacramento Deputies Had Probable Cause to Arrest Panera Gunman Weeks Before Shooting, Sheriff Says

Sacramento County Sheriff’s officials say deputies had probable cause to arrest Rohit Rohit for violating a restraining order weeks before he killed Shalini Thakur at a Panera in Sacramento. Thakur obtained a civil harassment restraining order against Rohit in May, then called the Sheriff’s Office on July 29 after receiving grocery deliveries she believed he had ordered. Investigators made at least two attempts to locate Rohit but never made contact.

Sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. Amar Gandhi defended the department’s response, saying detectives followed up on a lower-level misdemeanor case and that Rohit alone was responsible for the killing.“If we made contact with him, yeah, I am certain there would have been an arrest,”Gandhi told KCRA.“But again, there was no contact made.”He also pushed back on criticism, saying,“To say that nothing was done is absolutely incorrect.”Rohit had no known criminal history and no prior restraining-order violations.

The case raises difficult questions for Sacramento County residents about how restraining-order violations are enforced and whether even a successful arrest would have kept Rohit in custody, given the misdemeanor-level nature of the violation. Gandhi acknowledged that an arrest alone would not have guaranteed he stayed locked up.

What do you think would make restraining orders more effective in Sacramento County? We want to hear from you.