Man charged in 2-year-old girl’s death

A man was charged with murder Tuesday in the death of his 2year-old daughter, whom authorities allege he used as a hostage to threaten his girlfriend and then killed by leaving her unsecured in the front seat of his sports car as he led police on a chase Monday.

Deontray Flanagan, 25, was booked into Harris County Jail and formally charged Tuesday morning, hours after the chase that led to the girl’s death, according to Harris County court records.

According to charging documents, the girl, identified by the initials Z.F., died after suffering blunt force injuries from being thrown around the car during the 45-minute chase. The girl was unsecured in the front seat of Flanagan’s Camaro as he drove it more than 30 miles, sometimes weaving into wrong-way traffic and hitting other vehicles, according to prosecutors.

After his arrest, Flanagan told police the girl struck the dashboard of the car during the chase and said he was “only worried about himself” and “was not thinking about” her, according to charging documents.

Flanagan is accused of going to a day care around 10:15 a.m., where the girl’s mother had dropped off her daughter earlier, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, who added that Flanagan was believed to be the girl’s biological father. He then drove to a nearby Walmart and confronted the mother at work, demanding to see her phone.

Flanagan is accused of holding the child hostage and strangling and beating her during the confrontation, according to court documents. Prosecutors said he was trying to extort his girlfriend into giving him her cellphone password. Gonzalez said Flanagan hit the woman in the face and then fled the store with the child.

Investigators began working to find Flanagan shortly after.

Police spotted his red Camaro near the intersection of Greens Road and Interstate 45, and officers began following in a chase that took them to Stuebner Airline. The Camaro eventually stopped in a field near St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, 14301 Stuebner Airline, about 7 miles from where the chase began.

Police initially treated the situation as a standoff. A negotiator then approached the car and soon discovered the child had been injured, Gonzalez said. At about 12:40 p.m., an assault team was able to approach the car and remove Flanagan and the child, the sheriff said.

Flanagan’s bond was set at $1 million, according to court records. He was being held at Harris County Jail as of Tuesday evening, records show.