Background
Born (1973-06-06) June 6, 1973 (age 39), Morgan (Shemar Moore) is the son of an African American father (unnamed) and white mother, Fran. He went to Northwestern University on a football scholarship, holds a black belt in Judo, runs FBI self-defence classes, served in a bomb squad unit, and worked as a Chicago police officer.Derek had at one time done 18 months of deep undercover work. He and his two sisters, Sarah and Desirée, grew up in a tough Chicago neighborhood.
At the age of ten, Morgan was a witness to the shooting death of his father, a police officer. After his father's death, Morgan struggled somewhat with youthful fighting earning him a juvenile criminal record. He was taken under the wing of a local youth center coordinator, Carl Buford. Buford acted as a surrogate father to Morgan, helping Morgan to obtain the aforementioned football scholarship, but Buford was also sexually abusing him, which Morgan revealed several years later, under extreme duress.E212 As a teen he discovered the body of an unidentified boy, which had a profound effect on him (he went door to door in order to collect money to buy the boy a headstone and visited the boy's grave every time he came home to Chicago).
Years later, Morgan's past would come back to haunt him when he was arrested by the Chicago Police Department for the murder of the unidentified boy and two others. The lead detective (who had arrested Morgan several times as a boy) believed Morgan was guilty and used a BAU profile done by Jason Gideon (who was unaware Morgan was the prime suspect) to support his case. Believing he was being framed by the real killer, the BAU searched through Morgan's life and background to prove him innocent, which discomfited Garcia. They later identified Carl Buford as the man who set Morgan up to take the fall (Buford was friends with the lead detective). When Hotch asked about Buford, Morgan told him to back off. He then escaped police custody and spoke to a local boy who was friends with the latest victim. The boy revealed he was currently being molested by Buford and that the latest victim knew about it. Morgan confronted Buford, who at first denied anything happened between them, and told Morgan the other boy was lying. Refusing to back down (and wishing that he had told someone about Buford when he was a kid), Morgan eventually got Buford to admit to the abuse. Buford's admission was overheard by Chicago detectives (who were hiding nearby), and they arrested Buford. Buford pleaded with Morgan to help him, and Derek told Buford, "You go to Hell," leaving the child molester to his fate. E212
Read more about this topic: Derek Morgan (Criminal Minds)
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