A man who police say dropped his 18-month-old granddaughter from the 11th deck of a cruise ship has been accused of negligent homicide.

The toddler, Chloe Wiegand, fell from the Freedom of the Seas when it was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in July.

A judge on Monday ordered the arrest of her maternal grandfather, Salvatore Anello, after prosecutors submitted evidence and said the child fell when he raised her up to an open window.

A lawyer for the family said Chloe had asked her grandfather to lift her up so she could bang on the glass in a children’s play area.

He blamed the cruise ship company, Royal Caribbean Cruises, for leaving the window open when it “should have been closed securely”.

Anello is being held on an $80,000 (£62,000) bond and is scheduled to appear in court on 20 November.

Initial reports suggested Chloe had slipped from his hands, but Miami-based attorney Michael Winkleman said the story was “not as it had originally been portrayed in the media”.

He said in a statement: “The grandfather didn’t drop the child – the child fell due to an open glass pane that should have been closed securely.

“Chloe wanted to bang on the glass like she always did at her older brother’s hockey games. Her grandfather thought there was glass just like everywhere else, but there was not, and she was gone in an instant.”

Police then said the family was in shock and that Anello was under investigation.

Royal Caribbean Cruises called it a tragic incident and said it was helping the family.

Chloe’s mother, Kimberly Wiegand, has told of her suffering, telling NBC how she relives the tragedy every day, and adding: “The thing that I latch onto is really her memory.”

The family are from South Bend, Indiana, where father Alan Wiegand is a police officer.

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