Father charged with murder after 1-year-old son found at South LA motel

A man accused in the death of his son, who was found unresponsive at a South Los Angeles motel, was charged Friday with murder.

Shane Zachary Flowers, 23, was arrested Wednesday afternoon and was being held on $100,000 bail. He is expected to be arraigned Friday afternoon on charges of murder and assault on a child causing death.

Los Angeles police responded around 11:10 a.m. Tuesday to the Rosa Bell Motel in the 5600 block of South Western Avenue, where they found the boy – – 17-month-old Dee’ago Alexander Jones — unconscious and not breathing. The toddler died at a hospital.

The boy’s mother, Ryanna Jones, told KTLA5 that Flowers confessed to punching the boy after tripping over a video game controller. The child fell down, hit his head and lost consciousness.

“He told me that he didn’t think he hit him that hard for him to pass away,” Jones told the station. “And I kept telling him, stop hitting my son. And every time I told him to stop, I got the outcome. I was getting beat up.”

Speaking to ABC7, Jones said she didn’t know why Flowers “would run from this situation and just leave us there, and not come back.”

“He didn’t even call to make sure her was even alive or OK,” Jones told the station.

She said the family of three was living at the motel as part of a shelter program for homeless families with children.

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