SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two South Sacramento families are reflecting on their loved ones who senselessly lost their lives to violence.
"Her name was Michelle Benavidez. She was 29, and it's just affected us," said Paula Gardner who is the Aunt of Michelle Benavidez.
Gardner was joined with about a hundred others and the Parents of Murdered Children for a National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims at the Capitol. Gardner was left speechless while remembering her niece.
"It's hard. You don't really realize the pain and void that you have in your heart," Gardner said.
Gardener said her niece was raped and murdered. Her body was found the next day by a light rail station on Florin Road.
Sandra Rose, another South Sacramento mother, was alongside Gardner for the remembrance event.
"Today, I'm here in memory of my son, Anthony Barajas. He was taken in June 28 of 2015," Rose said.
Rose said her son was caught in the crossfire of a shooting, and that his killer is still out there.
However, she stays strong knowing that her son was a donor and was able to restore someone else's sight. She wants others to take his example and turn their lives around.
"There's so much in this world that you can do and enjoy. I want people to see their eyes open. I want people to take different paths in life. You don't have to shoot. There's so many different things in life and places that you can go to," Rose said.
For Gardener, the ask is different. Heartbroken by her niece's death, she'd like to see city officials creating movement.
"We need better lights. We need more security, RT (Sacramento Regional Transit District) security because her body was found at the light rail station. But just overall, we need the city representatives and the people that run our city, we need them to get involved," Gardner said.
ABC10 reached out to Sacramento Regional Transit in response to Paula's requests.
A spokesperson toild ABC10 that they are taking security seriously and were also recently awarded $900,000 in grant funding to add even more security cameras to the transit system.
The entire statement from SacRT is available below.
SacRT takes safety and security seriously. We have a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) which monitors more than 1,000 live feed cameras across our system.
SacRT contracts with both the Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department that assist the SacRT Police Services Department.
SacRT has a safety and reporting app called the Alert SacRT app which allows riders to report any incidents directly to our SOC. It can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play.
We also have signs in all our stations and parking lots about how to report any issues.
We were recently awarded $900,000 in grant funding to add additional security cameras across the transit system.
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