By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The father of a six-month-old baby killed when a tree branch fell on her in Central Park last weekend has filed legal action demanding the city preserve all evidence from the tragedy — including the deadly branch, the New York Post reported.
New Jersey dad Michael Ricciutti’s infant daughter Gianna Ricciutti was killed and his wife was critically injured when the two posed for a family photo under a tree near the Central Park Zoo on Saturday. His wife, Karla Del Gallo, remains in the ICU unit at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center with facial injuries and brain damage, the Post reported.
"It’s very tragic and trying to assign blame isn’t really something we should be focusing on," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said earlier this week.
The filing demands that the Central Park Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society turn over any evidence uncovered in the accident investigation as well as records on the tree’s maintenance.
The legal action is the first steps in a lawsuit against the city, the paper reported.
It is still unclear if the tree was in the Central Park Conservancy territory, which maintains trees throughout Central Park or the Wildlife Conservation Society, which would be responsible for trees at the zoo.
Gianna's death was the third major incident involving falling tree limbs in Central Park in the past year. Elmaz Qyra, of Brooklyn, was killed by a snowy tree branch came down on her on the Literary Walk in February. Her family has filed a lawsuit filed against the city and Central Park Conservancy as well.
The Central Park Conservatory is also in the midst of a $120 million lawsuit involving a rotted branch that fell on Google engineer Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, causing him brain and spinal damage last July.
The conservancy spends more than $600,000 annually on tree maintenance, according to Park officials.
