Former deputy kills 11-year-old son, is fatally shot after I-5 chase, officials say

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    LODI, California (KCRA) — A former Sacramento County deputy suspected of stabbing and killing his 11-year-old son was fatally shot after multiple law enforcement officers fired their weapons, following a chase on Interstate 5, officials said Tuesday.

Elk Grove police and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office confirmed with KCRA 3 that the father is 40-year-old Marvin Morales, a former deputy who was found to have lied about a 2023 fentanyl overdose following an investigation.

Elk Grove police said they got a call after 8 a.m. from a mother concerned about the safety of her two children. There are cameras in their home, and the mother saw the father, later identified as Morales, assaulting his 11-year-old son, and then saw her son lying on the ground unresponsive. That prompted her to call the police out of concern.

Officers went to the 7600 block of Ferrell Way near Whitelock Parkway and Bruceville Road and found an 11-year-old boy who had multiple stab wounds. The boy died from his injuries after he was taken to the hospital.

The father was gone by the time officers arrived.

Elk Grove police said there was also a 6-year-old girl present, but she was unharmed. She was later evaluated at a hospital and released to her mother.

At a news conference, a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said Sheriff Jim Cooper was one of the first law enforcement officials who spotted the suspect vehicle on southbound I-5 and Pocket Road. Tyler Eccles, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol, said officers deployed a spike strip, and Morales crashed afterward.

The pursuit ended at I-5 south of the Highway 12 junction in San Joaquin County.

Sacramento County Sheriff Spokesperson Sgt. Amar Gandhi said at least two deputies were involved in the shooting. Elk Grove police said one of their officers was also involved. No deputies or officers were hurt.

Officials said Morales had died after being taken to the hospital.

CHP said it does not have details on whether Morales fired at law enforcement.

Elk Grove police said they can’t release details about what was found in Morales’ vehicle but said the gun safe at his home was empty.

Traffic is delayed in the area where the shooting happened.

In 2025, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office released a 468-page internal affairs report along with video footage related to Morales’ overdose investigation.

According to the investigation, Morales suffered fentanyl poisoning and was revived with Narcan by fellow deputies in the bathroom of the central station after smoking fentanyl that he thought was methamphetamine he had seized from a suspect.

Among the findings in the report was that Morales had also taken home a methamphetamine pipe he had confiscated in August 2023. This was despite writing in crime reports that he disposed of pipes at the station.

Prior to the internal investigation, the sheriff’s office had said investigators suspected the deputy was handling evidence when he started feeling sick and then became unconscious.

The sheriff’s office ordered Morales to be fired, days after he submitted a letter of resignation that cited “personal reasons,” according to documents posted on its website. A state database showed Morales voluntarily disqualified himself from eligibility to be a peace officer.

Cristina Gonzalez with Elk Grove police said she was personally impacted by the suspect’s past connection to law enforcement.

“As someone who is in law enforcement I can tell you this is the absolute worst thing I could have ever imagined,” she said. “This is not something that we stand for. We want to protect people. We want to make sure everyone is safe and especially children. And seeing it happen like this, it’s completely heartbreaking. We never want this to happen.”

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