Vanessa Bryant, the widow of former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, broke down in tears during her testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom Friday after discussing the existence of graphic photographs from the helicopter crash scene.
Bryant reflected on the moment she learned that there were graphic photos of the scene that had been passed around by first responders. The photographs included the remains of her husband and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna.
“I felt like I wanted to run down the block and scream. I can’t escape my body. I can’t escape what I feel,” Bryant told the court, according to the New York Post. “I just remember not wanting to react because the girls were in the room.”
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The testimony Friday came during Bryant’s federal invasion of privacy lawsuit regarding the leak of the photos, which stemmed from the 2020 crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, and seven others, including the pilot, in Calabasas, California. The helicopter was on its way to a basketball game at Kobe’s Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, when it crashed on Jan. 26, 2020.
Orange County financial adviser Chris Chester joined Vanessa Bryant in the lawsuit after photographs of his wife and daughter were also spread among first responders. Chester’s wife and daughter were also killed in the crash.
Bryant and Chester are seeking unspecified millions in damages from Los Angeles County for negligence and invasion of privacy, the Post reported. Bryant said no one had notified her that photographs were taken as part of the investigation and claimed she was disgusted to learn the photographs were being shared.
“I expected them to have more compassion, respect,” Bryant said. “My husband and daughter deserved dignity.”
Bryant added that she lived in constant fear of seeing the images pop up online one day or that her three surviving daughters would one day see the images.
“I don’t ever want to see these photographs,” Bryant said. “I want to remember them as they were.”
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The defense claims no images were shared publicly by the responders and that all images have been destroyed. The Internal Affairs Bureau of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed no more images existed, according to ABC News.
Several people from the county’s law enforcement and fire services testified that they too had erased their pictures from the crash site on their cellphones. Deputy Mike Russell, however, said on Tuesday that he sent multiple photos to a colleague as they played the video game Call of Duty. A bartender also testified that a different deputy showed him images of the scene.
