{"id":391472,"date":"2026-07-09T01:56:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391472\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T01:56:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:56:31","slug":"after-fatal-i-80-shooting-sacramento-county-officials-push-to-change-domestic-violence-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391472\/","title":{"rendered":"After fatal I-80 shooting, Sacramento County officials push to change domestic violence law"},"content":{"rendered":"

(FOX40.COM) \u2014\u00a0Sacramento County’s top law enforcement officials are calling attention to recent domestic violence cases after a weekend incident ended with a suspect being shot and killed on Interstate 80<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Jim Cooper and District Attorney Thien Ho spoke exclusively with FOX40 about why they believe domestic violence should be considered a violent felony in California.<\/p>\n

“Over the course of three days, he beat his wife very badly,” Cooper said, describing the weekend incident. “At one point, he choked her, to the point of unconsciousness. She pretended to be dead.”<\/p>\n

The domestic violence incident ended Sunday morning on the freeway, according to Cooper.<\/p>\n

“Eventually, we picked him up in the north area on I-80,” Cooper said. “He stopped in the middle of the freeway. Pointed a gun at our officers. They returned fire and killed him.”<\/p>\n

The victim survived the incident.<\/p>\n

Beth Hassett, CEO of Women Escaping a Violent Environment, or WEAVE, said domestic violence is inherently violent and can quickly become deadly.<\/p>\n

“Domestic violence is violence,” Hassett said. “What we know is that very quickly, things can escalate. Things can become very violent, very dangerous. And very deadly for victims.”<\/p>\n

Ho said domestic violence remains a widespread issue.<\/p>\n

“Domestic violence is a real epidemic that we have here,” Ho said. “Not only in Sacramento County, but throughout the state and the country.”<\/p>\n

In Sacramento County, across seven law enforcement jurisdictions, around 6,000 domestic violence reports are made each year, with about 4,000 arrests.<\/p>\n

Ho’s office prosecutes about 3,000 domestic violence cases annually.<\/p>\n

“And what’s really disheartening,” Cooper said. “In California right now as we speak, domestic violence is not considered a violent felony.”<\/p>\n

Cooper said classifying domestic violence as a violent felony would impact whether someone is eligible for early release.<\/p>\n

“If it’s a violent felony, classified as that, you’re not eligible for early release,” Cooper said.<\/p>\n

Ho said in domestic violence convictions, defendants serve just 50% of their sentences. If domestic violence were categorized as a violent felony, they would serve 85%.<\/p>\n

“The only way to make domestic violence a violent felony is to go to the legislature and change the law,” Ho said. “And that’s something that we’re looking to do in the near future, in order to give accountability and make sure that the voices of victims are heard.”<\/p>\n

Ho is also working to give a voice to the victim who survived what officials described as a horrific domestic violence incident last month.<\/p>\n

“A woman was beaten on Highway 99,” Cooper said. “Law enforcement arrived, her face was so swollen, bloody. You really couldn’t identify her. He was arrested. She was taken to the hospital. When he arrived at our jail, our deputies do a pat-down search and remove all the property someone has in their pockets and things. Change. Shoelaces. And in his pocket, he had her eyeballs.”<\/p>\n

Ho described the case as horrific.<\/p>\n

“The defendant literally gouging out both of the victim’s eyeballs,” Ho said. “It was a horrific case.”<\/p>\n

Among the charges the suspect faces is aggravated mayhem, which carries a life sentence.<\/p>\n

The suspect is expected to be back in court Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Ho said his office also plans to file an amended complaint charging attempted murder.<\/p>\n

“We’re also tomorrow going to be filing an amended complaint, also charging attempted murder, as well,” Ho said.<\/p>\n

Cooper said cases like that should lead to serious consequences.<\/p>\n

“That crime shocks the moral conscience,” Cooper said. “And that’s one of those crimes where, hey, you shouldn’t get out early, and maybe you need more time to get rehabilitated and change your ways, if you do it ever at all.”<\/p>\n

Hassett said most domestic violence cases are never reported.<\/p>\n

“Most domestic violence cases are not reported. They go unreported,” Hassett said. “So, for every one that’s reported, there are dozens that go unanswered.”<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(FOX40.COM) \u2014\u00a0Sacramento County’s top law enforcement officials are calling attention to recent domestic violence cases after a weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4749,35831,2726,121,357,123,122,35830,157517],"class_list":["post-391472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-domestic-violence","tag-ho","tag-jim-cooper","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-thien-ho","tag-violent-felony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}