Father Kills Son, 4, with Same Abuse That Got Him Removed from Home as Infant: Police

Blake Dopirak, 27, was ordered to serve 24 years behind bars in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Thursday for the 2022 death of his son, Zaydian Dopirak. This after Blake had pleaded guilty last month to one felony count of endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death.

But while Blake is facing decades behind bars, there are those in Zaydian's life who feel that the system totally failed the toddler and his death could have been prevented.

The St. Louis Police Department responded to a call for an unresponsive child just after 8 a.m. on January 2, 2022 in Manchester, Missouri, per NBC affiliate KSDK, after Blake called 911 and told dispatch that his son had suddenly stopped breathing.

Zaydian was rushed to the hospital, but he would ultimately die the following evening. An autopsy on his body led to the determination that his death was the result of a homicide, with the coroner's report giving his cause of death as "non-accidental closed head trauma."

After investigating the matter, Blake was arrested and charged in relation to his son's death. Charging documents state that Blake told police he was alone when his son became unresponsive.

What investigators also uncovered was that this was not the first time Zaydian had presented with these exact same types of injuries, and it wasn't the first time authorities believed it was quite literally at Blake's hands.

In 2018, when Zaydian was just five weeks old, he was critically injured and hospitalized due to alleged physical abuse by his father. At the time, medical personnel described the child as having suffered a "non-accidental traumatic brain injury."

The child was subsequently removed from his care and placed with a foster family. In an interview with Fox affiliate KTVI last week, one of those foster parents described that initial injury by saying Zaydian's skull had been "crushed by hand."

The foster parents, Dawn and Jeff James, were extremely critical of the state for returning the boy to his father, considering the seriousness of his previous injuries when he was just a baby. KTVI reported that the couple was in court for Blake's sentencing, where they "could be heard weeping" alongside a therapy dog provided by the prosecutor's office.

"We should have never been here, if the courts would have originally listened," said Dawn outside the courthouse.

According to KTVI, it was the Jameses who took in Zaydian at four months old. At the time, they said they were told he would never walk, but said he not only walked but thrived in their care.

The couple would go on to petition for permanent guardianship. They said that in 2022, they had social workers, a pediatrician, and a guardian ad litem help their petition by testifying that it would be too dangerous to return Zaydian to his father's care.

"When you have so many people telling you that if this child is returned home, he will be killed, you need to listen to that," Dawn told KTVI. "We were shocked when the judge said she was going to do a trial reunification."

Shortly after the reunification, Zaydian was dead, Blake was charged with his murder, and the family court commissioner who'd ordered the reunification retired. Dawn said that the retirement restored the James' faith "that no family would be put through this again."

Following Blake's sentence, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith said that she felt "justice has been served."

"We are relieved for this family that this painful chapter is over, and they can continue on their path to healing," she said, adding, "May this angel rest in peace."

Dawn also spoke after the sentencing, saying, "I know that Zaydian can never be brought back, but my family got justice for him today. Knowing that he’s going to go away, I have a little bit of peace."