Mom tells police she couldn't lift drowning 2-year-old from bath tub

GREEN TREE, Pa. — Authorities said a mother from West Virginia tried to kill her son in a Green Tree hotel bath tub on Sunday.

Channel 11 News first reported the story on Monday after investigators said they were looking into a near drowning inside of a Best Western.

Police later said that the child's mother was arrested late Monday night. Sharon Flanagan is charged with criminal attempted homicide and child endangerment.

Emergency officials said when they arrived after receiving a 911 call around 8:30 p.m., the boy was unconscious and did not have a pulse. Paramedics said they were able to regain his pulse and transported him to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh where he's listed in critical condition.

According to the police report, Flanagan was in the room at the time of the incident and was the sole caregiver for the boy during her stay at the hotel.

In a statement released by Allegheny County police on Tuesday investigators said, "Through the course of the investigation the mother gave different versions of events."

According to the criminal complaint, Flanagan told investigators that her son was swimming in the bathtub while she was sitting on the lid of the toilet. She then told police her son could have fallen and ended up face down in the water.

In the complaint, police stated that Flanagan told them she was unable to remove the 2-year-old from the tub and stated that the boy had somehow gotten stuck. Flanagan told police that she couldn’t pull her son from the tub to save him because he was too heavy for her bad back.

"The defendant stated she had a pain in her back on occasion so she left the bathroom and proceeded to the bed and retrieved an Ace-type bandage to help support her back," the criminal complaint said.

Flanagan told officers after she put the brace on her back she returned to the tub where the boy remained face down and was unable to pull him out.

During a second interview, the criminal complaint said that Flanagan said her son's head went underwater and she grabbed him by the left arm and left leg as he was lying face down.

Police said Flanagan told them that she was unable to pull the defendant from the water and was holding the victim in place as she grabbed him. Flanagan said, according to police, that she "felt like something was actually pulling him toward the bottom of the tub."

Hotel guest Robert Moore told Channel 11 News that he was shocked to hear about the life-and-death emergency.

“Anyone should be able to lift a 32-pound baby out of the water,” Moore said.

Flanagan is in the Allegheny County Jail with bail set at $250,000.

WPXI