Ex-deputy accused of fatally stabbing son in Elk Grove shot dead after I-5 chase
The Elk Grove man shot and killed by Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies after fatally stabbing his son was a former Sacramento deputy who was recently relieved of his duties, authorities said.
Marvin Morales fled his family’s home in the 7600 block of Ferrell Way by the time Elk Grove police arrived just after 8 a.m. Inside, his 11-year-old son had been stabbed. A 6-year-old in the home was not hurt.
The 11-year-old, identified by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office as Mar Aris Untalan Morales, later died at a nearby hospital.
A call from the boy’s mother to Elk Grove police just after 8 a.m. brought officers to the home. Police said she was concerned for her sons’ safety.
The mother had been monitoring cameras inside the home and reportedly saw Morales assaulting their son. She called police immediately, officers said at the scene.
Elk Grove officers soon spotted Morales spotted on southbound Interstate 5 near Pocket Road in Sacramento about 9:25 a.m., according to Elk Grove police and sheriff’s dispatch calls reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.
Morales then took authorities on a high-speed chase that topped speeds of 100 mph. The fleeing car reached speeds of 115 mph on the southbound freeway south of Elk Grove before the vehicle was disabled. The encounter with deputies ended in gunfire just before 10 a.m. at I-5 near Highway 12, west of Lodi, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said.
The driver, believed to be heavily armed, was stopped by a spike strip before he was felled in the shooting, the Sheriff’s Office said.
CHP officials said the pursuit ended after Morales crashed his SUV following the spike strip deployment. An officer-involved shooting occurred shortly after. Officials did not confirm whether Morales fired at law enforcement.
The driver was taken to a hospital where he later died, the CHP said; deputies were not hurt, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputy shooting to be investigated
Two Sacramento County deputies fired their weapons during the encounter, a sheriff’s spokesperson said.
“It’s just absolutely awful,” said Officer Cristina Gonzalez, an Elk Grove Police Department spokesperson. “We never want to see any children getting hurt.”
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi confirmed Morales had been terminated from the agency in February 2024. He said Sheriff Jim Cooper personally spotted Morales’ vehicle during the pursuit. “It really kind of speaks volumes to the support this region has,” Gandhi said of the multi-agency response.
Gandhi said Morales’ peace officer powers had been revoked and that he was no longer affiliated with the department at the time of the incident.
“It’s gross,” Gandhi said, describing the department’s reaction to learning a former deputy was accused of killing his own son. “Nobody wants to hear something like this, especially when it involves a former deputy. But, again, our focus is with the family. He’s kind of an ancillary piece.”
California Highway Patrol Valley Division Chief Tyler Eccles said Morales crashed near the frontage road between I-5 and Highway 12. He said no officers were injured and credited coordination between agencies for safely resolving the pursuit.
“We mourn with the community who is mourning at this time,” Eccles said. “We’re committed to conducting the investigation that needs to be done.”
The deputies who fired their service weapons will be placed on administrative leave as an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office’s professional standards division and the CHP takes place. The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office will conduct its own review of the shooting, which is standard practice.
‘Our hearts are broken’
Ferrell Way was quiet early Tuesday afternoon as latex-gloved forensics officers filed in and out of the Morales home, which was blocked off by yellow crime tape. The scene jarred in this newish, but closely knit neighborhood of government employees, at-home office workers, and fire and law enforcement personnel, where inflatable Christmas decorations dotted nearby lawns.
A neighbor of Morales for 10 years did not want to be identified for fear of his safety. Hours earlier his wife returned home from dropping off their children at school to the drama unfolding across the street.
“My wife dropped the kids off, we came back home, and there were cops everywhere, more than I’d ever seen,” the neighbor said. Minutes later, the boy was being rushed out of the home by emergency personnel.
“Our hearts just dropped. We were heartbroken when we saw that,” the neighbor said. “This is shocking to us. Our hearts are broken.”
“He was the first person I met,” the neighbor recalled.
Their families launched fireworks together on Fourth of July festivities and checked on each other’s homes when one or the other left town for vacation. The two men talked about football and boxing, “normal conversations,” he said Tuesday.
“There was no indication of anything” amiss before Tuesday’s violence, he said. He said Morales and his wife were planning a trip to the Bay Area, but had no details.
The neighbor followed the ordeal on television Tuesday morning as he fielded worried calls from family and friends who recognized their home on TV.
“We had been watching the news when he was stopped,” the neighbor said. “It was his car. He had been shot.”
Fentanyl overdose while on duty
On Feb. 2, 2024, Morales resigned from his job as a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy. He submitted his resignation about a month after the Sheriff’s Office informed him that internal affairs investigators recommended the deputy be fired on grounds of dishonesty.
Morales became the focus of the internal affairs investigation after deputies found him overdosing in a bathroom on Oct. 24, 2023, at the sheriff’s Central Division station at 65th Street and Florin Road. The deputies administered naloxone in an effort to reverse the overdose. Morales survived after he was taken to a hospital.
The then-deputy told internal affairs investigators he confiscated the drugs from a man he stopped earlier that day, according to a 468-page internal investigation report previously released by the Sheriff’s Office and posted on its website.
Morales told investigators he ingested the drug because he wanted to die by suicide and struggled with his mental health, according to the report.
Morales admitted that he confiscated a pipe while on duty and smoked methamphetamine coating the pipe three or four times in the months leading up to the October 2023 fentanyl overdose. It was for a “hit of energy” while he procrastinated completing reports into his investigations, according to the report.
The internal affairs investigators cast doubt on the truth behind Morales’ claims, saying a drug test of his hair showed “chronic use” consistent with a person who uses drugs throughout their life, according to the report.
The Bee’s Ishani Desai contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 10:31 AM.
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