The vehicle pursuit of a former Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy accused of fatally stabbing his child in Elk Grove on Tuesday led to a California Highway Patrol officer fatally shooting him, the CHP said.
Just after 8:30 a.m., CHP officers were involved in a multi-agency pursuit stemming from a criminal investigation out of Elk Grove.
According to Elk Grove police, just after 8 a.m., a woman notified them that she was worried about the safety of her two children who were home with their father, Marvin Morales, 40, a former deputy with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
When officers did a well-being check in the 7600 block of Ferrell Way, they found an 11-year-old child who had been stabbed and a 6-year-old child who was unharmed. Police said Morales “took off” before officers arrived, which led to the multi-agency pursuit. The child was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The CHP pursuit took place on southbound Interstate Highway 5 and officers used spike strips to try to disable the fleeing vehicle, causing the car to crash on I-5 south of state Highway 12, the CHP said.
After the crash, a CHP officer fatally shot Morales. At this time, the agency has not released any details about whether the suspect was armed, or how or why Morales was shot, but said that the Elk Grove Police Department will lead the independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
Morales resigned from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office in 2024 after an internal affairs report, later made public, showed he ingested fentanyl taken from a suspect. Body-worn camera footage of Morales unconscious on the bathroom floor at the Sheriff’s Office in 2023 went viral at the time. Deputies can be seen administering him the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, most likely saving his life.
“We mourn with the community, who is mourning at this time as well,” said CHP Valley Division Chief Tyler Eccles in a statement released by his office. “We commit, on behalf of the California Highway Patrol, with our partners, to conduct the investigation that needs to be done.”
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