Heartsick relatives of an infant knocked out of her mother’s arms and killed by a tree branch at the Central Park Zoo comforted each other yesterday as city officials puzzled over the horrifying tragedy.
Little Gianna Ricciutti died after a seemingly healthy tree limb snapped 25 feet above her on a picture-perfect day Saturday, toppling onto mom Karla DelGallo as she held the baby and as proud dad Michael Ricciutti took pictures in front of the sea lion exhibit.
“This was a tragedy,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. “The limb was healthy and had leaves on it. Why it fell is under review.”
VIDEO: BRANCH KILLS BABY AT CENTRAL PARK ZOO
DelGallo, 33, smiling and full of joy just moments before the disaster, was in stable condition with head trauma at New York Hospital, where the baby girl was pronounced dead.
The couple and their only child had traveled from their home in Union City, NJ, for a Big Apple outing, enjoying one of New York’s most popular activities.
“The family’s in shock,” said a neighbor who lives near Ricciutti’s parents in Demarest, NJ. “They’re devastated by this.”
But a day after the unimaginable tragedy, city officials still had no answers about what brought the branch down.
The four-foot limb — 18 inches in diameter, with a thick bunch of bright green leaves at the end of its reach — came from a tree that was as healthy as any in the park, officials said.
A spokesman for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, declined to comment except to express condolences to Gianna’s family.
The Central Park Conservancy maintains trees in Central Park, but the branch fell from a tree on the grounds of the zoo. Officials were reviewing which agency is responsible for maintaining the tree.
The baby girl was the second person killed by falling tree limbs this year in the park. In February, a snow-laden limb from a decaying American elm on Literary Walk fell and killed Albanian immigrant Elmaz Qyra, 46. A lawsuit charged that the tree had been marked as dangerous but not removed.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan, Perry Chiaramonte & Frank Rosario