Friends and family gathered in Sacramento on Monday for the funeral of Shalini Thakur, 38, nearly a week after she was shot and killed in broad daylight outside a Panera. Her death ended a life that friends said was still full of plans, and it left a small circle of mourners to speak for a family mostly far away in India.
The killing has drawn attention because Thakur had an active civil harassment restraining order against Rohit Rohit when she was gunned down on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. Deputies said Rohit later led them on a chase onto Highway 50 and took his own life right after the shooting, leaving no criminal trial and no chance for a courtroom account of what happened in the minutes before she died.
That is why Monday mattered. The funeral became the first public marker of grief after the killing, and the people who showed up carried details that a police report cannot. Melinda Willey, who said she formed a friendship with Thakur, said, “I want to honor her heart and her kindness,” while Satinder Dulai described her as “a lady with a vibrant personality. Larger than life, with this glow about her, her aura.” Dulai also said Thakur “had a bubbly personality” and “had a lot of goals.”
Only Thakur’s mother and uncle were there from her family, a reflection of how much of her life remained rooted in India while she worked in California. Friends and a customer from the IHOP in Arden-Arcade where she worked also came to pay their respects, and the small group gave the funeral a wider purpose than remembrance alone. It was also a public sign of how many people felt she was failed before the shooting ever happened.
Tara Singh put that frustration bluntly at the service, saying, “He was an illegal person in this country and she has a restraining order. I don't know how the police department didn't take any action.” That criticism hangs over the case because the basic facts do not explain why Thakur was left exposed despite the order, or what, if anything, was done to reduce the risk before the attack.
Willey said she hoped the case would lead to broader change, including possible legislation that could help others in similar situations. For now, Rohit is dead, Thakur is buried, and the unanswered question is not whether her friends will keep speaking. It is whether anyone in power will explain why a woman with a restraining order was left to die outside a Panera Bread in broad daylight.
