(WHDH) — A man is facing a manslaughter charge after police say he beat his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son to death for urinating on a couch.
Emergency officials responding to a report of an unresponsive child at an apartment in Lakeland, Florida, just before 1 a.m. on Friday rushed the young boy to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Lakeland Police Department.
The child, whose death has since been ruled a homicide, is said to have suffered multiple blunt force trauma injuries while in the care of his mother’s boyfriend, 30-year-old Alegray Jones.
During an interview with detectives, Jones allegedly admitted to becoming aggravated at the child after he had urinated on the couch and that he struck the child on multiple areas of his body, causing him to go unconscious.
Police say Jones did not make any attempt to get help for the boy, and instead sent a text message to the child’s mother while she was at work. The mother immediately left work, returned home, and then called 911.
Jones was booked into the Polk County Jail on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child.
An investigation remains ongoing.
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