(KTLA) — An ex-sheriff’s deputy in Sacramento County, Calif., was killed in a shootout with police earlier this week after allegedly stabbing his 11-year-old son to death.
The tragic violence unfolded on Tuesday, according to a news release from the Elk Grove Police Department.
Officers responded to a home in Elk Grove, a city some 15 miles south of Sacramento, at around 8 a.m. after the boy’s mother called from work to report her son seen in home surveillance cameras lying unresponsive on the ground.
Details are limited, and it’s unclear exactly how the violence played out, but police found the child, now identified as Mar Aris Untalan Morales, suffering from multiple stab wounds. He was rushed to the hospital, where he later died, KTLA’s sister-station KTXL reported.
The victim’s 6-year-old sister was home at the time of the incident. She was evaluated at the hospital and later released to her mother.
Marvin Morales, 40, the boy’s father, was identified as a suspect. According to investigators, he had fled the scene before police arrived, prompting officials to notify outside law enforcement agencies and provide them withhis vehicle description.
Morales was reportedly spotted by Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper in the southbound lanes of the 5 Freeway. He then led law enforcement, including officers with the California Highway Patrol (CHP), on a pursuit that ultimately ended in a shootout near Highway 12, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Body cam footage of Marvin Morales inside a patrol cruiser in 2023. (SCSO)
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office deputy Marvin Morales seizes drug paraphernalia during a suspicious person stop on Oct. 24, 2024.
Marvin Morales seen in on ground while fellow deputies revive him from a drug overdose at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Station on Oct. 24, 2023. (SCSO)
Morales was struck by gunfire and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The former Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) deputy had been at the center of an October 2023 investigation after he was found unresponsive by one of his colleagues in the restroom of the sheriff’s station. Responding officers revived him with Narcan for what was believed to be exposure to fentanyl.
The incident prompted an investigation that was discreetly released by SCSO.
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According to a 468-page Internal Affairs report, Morales seized what he thought was methamphetamine and a glass pipe during a stop of a “suspicious person” and kept it. While on duty and in full uniform, he smoked the drug in the restroom of the sheriff’s station.
The substance turned out to be fentanyl.
“I can never trust him as to when he makes any contact, finds narcotics, finds money, finds anything,” one SCSO official, whose full name was redacted, said in the investigative report. “It is a horrible embarrassment across the law enforcement community.”
Morales reportedly blamed the incident on his battle with depression and suggested the overdose was an attempted suicide; however, a drug test revealed he was a “chronic user.” He attempted to resign from his position as a deputy but was ultimately fired.
Investigators with the Elk Grove Police Department are leading the investigation into the homicide of the 11-year-old boy, while CHP is handling the investigation into the pursuit and officer-involved shooting.
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