Pregnant woman killed when tree branch falls in Queens

FLUSHING (WABC) -- An expectant mother died Sunday after being struck by a falling tree branch in a Queens park.

Aleksandar Dikov, a combat medic in the Army National Guard, is a broken man.

"She was a lovely person, she will always be in my heart," said Aleksandar Dikov, the victim's husband.

Her Chinese name was Yingyi, but she went by the American name Angel. She was six months pregnant and on top of the world.

Sunday night, Angel Li Dekov went for her daily walk in Kissena Park and was resting on a bench when tragedy struck.

A huge tree branch suddenly fell and killed her and her baby, leaving her husband blaming himself for not having accompanied her.

"I wish I would have went with her, I don't know if I might have prevented something," Aleksandar Dikov said.

"This is, nobody can predict what happens, this is nature," said Janet Dikov, the victim's mother-in-law.

No one can predict when things like that will happen, but Monday calls were sounded for the city to engage in aggressive tree pruning. Sadly, this was not the first such freak accident.

"This isn't an act of God, there wasn't a storm, there wasn't a hurricane, there wasn't a lot of rain, this is a tree that probably should have been inspected, and they probably would have found it should come down," said State Senator Tony Avella.

He is 20 from Bulgaria. She was 30 from China. Despite their cultural and age differences, they laughed and travelled and fell in love. And they were getting ready to start a family.

The first time they took a sonogram, Aleksandar joked his daughter looked just like him.

He is questioning if he'll ever heal from his double loss.

"She was always smiling, no matter if there were problems, she was always there for me," Aleksandar Dikov said.

The couple liked the name Christine for their baby paired with a Chinese name that means moonlight.

The victim's husband is now waiting for her father to arrive from Shanghai before making any funeral arrangements.

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