The grandfather of a toddler who fell to her death from the 11th level of a cruise ship may face charges of negligence in her death.
An attorney for the Indiana family says 1-year-old Chloe Weigand fell from a window when her grandfather lost his grip. Attorney Michael Winkleman was retained by the family following the tragic accident on board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico.
Chloe and her grandfather, Salvatore Anello were in a children’s play area on the ship when the little girl toddled over to an open window, CBS News reports. Anello reportedly picked Chloe up and held her outside the window, which he thought was closed.
“Chloe wanted to bang on the glass like she always did at her older brothers’ hockey games. Her grandfather thought there was glass just like everywhere else, but there was not, and she was gone in an instant,” Winkleman said in a statement.
According to news reports, Anello was “playfully dangling” Chloe outside the window when she fell.
Winkleman blamed the cruise ship for the tragic accident, but police may file charges against Anello for negligence.
“How about a warning, how about a sign, how about something?,” Winkleman said. “When you put it in a kids’ play area, you gotta do something to let people know that these can be opened so things like this don’t happen.”
Chloe’s father is Alan Wiegand, an officer with the South Bend Police Department. The family was too distraught to attend a news conference on Tuesday in Puerto Rico.
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean told CBS News it’s deeply saddened by the “tragic accident” and its “heart goes out to the family.”
Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the photograph(s) used in this post. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” of photographs for purposes such as parody, criticism, commentary, news reporting, education, and research.
