Was he armed? State to review shooting of ex-Sacramento deputy who stabbed son
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The California Department of Justice is investigating Marvin Morales’ shooting death.
- Morales was fatally wounded in a confrontation with law enforcement.
- State law requires the DOJ to investigate all police shootings of an unarmed civilian.
A former Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy who fatally stabbed his son may have been unarmed when authorities shot and killed him Tuesday morning during a confrontation along Interstate 5 in San Joaquin County.
The California Department of Justice announced it would investigate the officer-involved shooting of Marvin Morales, who was fired upon by at least three law enforcement officers following the stabbing death of his 11-year-old son and a high-speed chase.
Morales, 40, died after the shooting, which involved two Sacramento County deputies and one Elk Grove police detective. These officials were placed on administrative leave, a standard procedure for their agencies.
The state Department of Justice involvement signals that Morales did not have a gun during the confrontation. The involved agencies — including the California Highway Patrol, which is leading the investigation — have not said whether he was armed.
Earlier that morning, authorities said Morales fatally stabbed the boy inside their Elk Grove home in the 7600 block of Ferrell Way. The boy’s mother, who was at work, called police shortly after 8 a.m. after seeing security camera footage showing her son lying unresponsive on the ground.
A 6-year-old girl also in the home was not injured after being evaluated at a hospital.
Police said Morales left before officers arrived and found the boy with stab wounds. The child, identified as Mar Aris Untalan Morales, later died at a hospital.
Morales reportedly led authorities on a high-speed chase after his vehicle was spotted heading south on I-5 near Pocket Road in Sacramento, police said. The pursuit ended when Morales’ vehicle crashed along I-5 near Highway 12, west of Lodi, after CHP officers deployed a spike strip. Around 9:50 a.m., Morales was shot during the confrontation and taken to a hospital, where he died.
California police shooting law
The California Department of Justice said Wednesday it would independently review Morales’ death under Assembly Bill 1506, signed into law in September 2020. The state law requires the department’s California Police Shooting Investigation Team to investigate all incidents of an officer-involved shooting resulting in the death of an unarmed subject.
At a news conference after the shooting, authorities did not provide any specific details about whether Morales was armed with a weapon during his confrontation.
Officer Cristina Gonzalez, an Elk Grove Police spokesperson, told reporters she couldn’t talk about whether any weapons were found in Morales’ vehicle. Gonzalez said investigators did find an empty gun safe at his Elk Grove home, but they did not find any guns there.
When asked what caused the deputies to draw their weapons in the confrontation with Morales, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Amar Gandhi deferred to the CHP.
“We did have a lot of information on his history. We did hear that he was armed,” Gandhi said. “This was taken with full caution.”
When asked if investigators had confirmed Morales had a weapon, CHP Valley Division Chief Tyler Eccles said, “That’s all going to be a part of the investigation that we’re just beginning.”
By Wednesday evening, officials referred all questions about whether Morales was armed to the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Morales, who had worked as a patrol deputy, resigned Feb. 2, 2024. He submitted his resignation about a month after the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office informed him that internal affairs investigators recommended that he be fired on grounds of dishonesty.
The deputy became the focus of an internal investigation after he was found overdosing on confiscated fentanyl inside the bathroom of the sheriff’s south Sacramento station.
Morales got the drugs, later determined to contain fentanyl, when he stopped a man Oct. 24, 2023, at a Shell gas station on Stockton Boulevard, according to a 468-page internal investigation report. The man told Morales he had been smoking methamphetamine. The deputy had interacted with the man before, and he knew the man used drugs, Morales told investigators.
The deputy admitted he took the drugs from the man and smoked them in a bathroom later that day at the sheriff’s Central Division station on 65th Street and Florin Road.
The state Department of Justice asked anyone with information relevant to the fatal shooting to call 916-210-2871.
