LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The family of an Indiana toddler who fell to her death from a cruise ship over the weekend wants to set the record straight, according to an attorney.
The incident took place on Sunday afternoon, while the ship was docked in Puerto Rico, at the Panamerican dock in the capital of San Juan. The ship had just finished a weeklong trip through the Caribbean.
The Associated Press initially cited authorities who said 1-year-old Chloe Wiegand slipped from her grandfather's hands and fell from the 11th story of the cruise ship. In an interview with WSBT television, Puerto Rico police claimed the girl was being held out of a window, the Associated Press reported.
Images of Chloe Wiegand, the 1-year-old who fell from a cruise ship in July 2019
But the police chief of South Bend, Indiana, Scott Ruszkowski, disputed that statement issued by Puerto Rico police.
And on Tuesday, an attorney who had been hired to represent the girl's family also flatly denied those claims.
Attorney Michael Winkleman says Chloe was with her grandfather at the ship's water park. He said the child's grandfather did not dangle or drop her, but that she fell because an open glass pane wasn't properly secured.
He said Chloe used to love to bang on the glass at her brother's hockey games.
"There's a wood railing right there, thinking she's going to bang on the glass and it's going to be great, and she goes to bang on the glass, and next thing he knows, she's gone," Winkleman said.
The South Bend family has to stay in Puerto Rico until authorities wrap up their investigation.
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