![\"Anahita](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791531492_160_d7e58292-ada8-46a7-8113-4e3c9fdf0260_1721668269.jpg\")
<\/a>SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\nA Sacramento nonprofit hosted a town hall to support survivors of domestic violence and discuss prevention efforts after two recent deadly cases in Sacramento County. <\/p>\n
The event, organized by Empact<\/a>, focused on turning grief into action, with discussions on preventing domestic violence, strengthening laws, and holding agencies accountable for victim safety. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a point that we\u2019ve got to do something about it, and we all have to stand on knowing that we\u2019re not by ourselves,\u201d said Monica Bustoz, a domestic violence survivor. <\/p>\n Empact, a nonprofit dedicated to victim advocacy, crisis response, and legislative work, hosted the event. Founder Leia Schenk said the gathering was a response to increasing domestic violence incidents. <\/p>\n \u201cWith the uptick of women that are losing their lives due to domestic violence incidents with intimate partner relationships, it was really something that has been asked of us for months now,\u201d Schenk said. \u201cIt was an overwhelming request that we get together and figure out what we can do next.\u201d <\/p>\n Bustoz shared her own experience as a survivor. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been very fearful for so long and to the point that I even ran out of the area just to hide from it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n The town hall followed two recent domestic violence cases in Sacramento County that ended in tragedy. Thirty-eight-year-old Shalini Thakur was killed outside a Panera by a man who had stalked her for about a year. Just two and a half weeks later, 29-year-old Samantha Cromwell was killed at her son\u2019s birthday party at Urban Air. Her family said the suspect was her husband.<\/p>\n \u201cI have had women that were coming up to me at the funeral of Shalini, saying, \u2018I\u2019m living her life. I have the same life, you know…What? What can I do?\u2019 They don\u2019t want to be the next woman laying in a casket,\u201d Schenk said. <\/p>\n Schenk emphasized the importance of taking action. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople are outraged for a second, and then it goes away and then we just wait for the next casualty to happen,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to be outraged enough to do something about it and really, that\u2019s the biggest message today is what are the next actionable item steps?\u201d <\/p>\n For those experiencing domestic violence, Schenk offered advice. <\/p>\n \u201cSome instances they would call 911 if it\u2019s a, you know, an immediate emergency and there\u2019s weapons involved and things like that, but ultimately it\u2019s documentation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Bustoz encouraged survivors to seek help. <\/p>\n \u201cSpeak. Don\u2019t stay quiet. Like they said, look for help. Get the help you need. Don\u2019t stop […] keep going until you find that person that does help you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sacramento nonprofit hosted a town hall to support domestic violence survivors and discuss prevention following two recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4385,6650,7,69905,191254,96107,4749,191252,23615,117794,191247,1043,97605,191251,72870,1637,191248,191250,121,357,123,122,15783,95692,187767,191253,181359,29247,20787,8322,13328,98137,191249,1557],"class_list":["post-490140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-4385","tag-action","tag-california","tag-crisis-response","tag-deadly-case","tag-documentation","tag-domestic-violence","tag-domestic-violence-prevention","tag-download","tag-empact","tag-empact-nonprofit","tag-event","tag-intimate-partner-violence","tag-legislative-work","tag-leia-schenk","tag-life","tag-monica-bustoz","tag-prevention-efforts","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-nonprofit","tag-sacramento-town-hall","tag-samantha-cromwell","tag-schenk","tag-shalini-thakur","tag-stalking","tag-survivor","tag-survivors","tag-town-hall","tag-victim-advocacy","tag-victim-safety","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490140","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=490140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}