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Former water park executive charged in Kansas boy's slide death

Credit: Luibrand, Shannon

A grand jury indictment says officials who designed, built and operated a giant waterslide at a Kansas water park knew it was "a deadly weapon" when they allowed a 10-year-old boy to get into a raft that later went airborne and decapitated him.

The Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kansas, and a former executive at the park were indicted Friday on involuntary manslaughter and several other charges in the August 2016 death of Caleb Schwab.

The indictment alleges that officials rushed the design and construction of the Verruckt waterslide. Also, the indictment says operators were aware of at least 13 other injuries - including two concussions - on the ride and that the specific raft Caleb was on went abnormally fast and would go airborne more frequently than other rafts.

Twenty-nine-year-old Tyler Austin Miles, former operations director for the company, pleaded not guilty.

Miles is the only person criminally charged so far in the boy's death, which occurred when the raft he was on hit a pole and netting on the 17-story Verruckt waterslide. Miles also faces 19 other charges.

Schlitterbahn officials defended Miles after the charges were filed, saying they stood by him and were shocked by the allegations against him.

A Schlitterbahn spokeswoman has not responded to requests for comments on the company's indictment.

Schwab was decapitated on the 17-story "Verruckt" waterslide.

Schmidt said the indictments also involve injuries suffered by 13 other people, including four children, who rode on the slide.

RELATED: New details emerge in freak accident at Kansas water park

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