On the witness stand on Friday, Vanessa Bryant sobbed as she described the moment she found out that emergency personnel had released pictures of her husband Kobe’s horrific helicopter accident.
Bryant testified that she had to leave her home after viewing media stories of the photos so her girls wouldn’t see her weeping. She was sobbing uncontrollably and gasping for oxygen the whole time.
The late NBA legend’s widow recalled hearing the news while nursing her youngest kid and said, “I felt like I wanted to go down the street and shout.”
I am unable to leave my body. She told the court, “I can’t run from what I feel.
Bryant acknowledged having frequent panic attacks because she worries that one day, violent photographs of her deceased husband and kid may appear online.
I worry seeing these photographs on social media every day, the woman said, adding that she had never seen the pictures.
I never want to see these pictures, she said. “I want to keep them in my memory as they were.
Bryant is suing Los Angeles County for millions of dollars after discovering that first responders reportedly shared graphic photographs of her to Gianna and Kobe.
Bryant often broke down over the course of the trial as a result of several witnesses who were engaged in the event testifying that they had seen the pictures.
Even last week, when Victor Gutierrez, a bartender, testified that a sheriff’s sergeant had showed him images of mutilated body parts following the collision, she was forced to leave the courtroom.
A day after the incident, Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Sanchez received texts from LA Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Russell with images of the damage, it was revealed earlier this week.
According to Russell, Sanchez and him were playing the popular shooting video game Call of Duty when Sanchez reportedly informed another LA officer, Joey Cruz, that he had pictures of the murder scene.
According to reports, Los Angeles fire officials were aware that posting graphic images of the collision that killed Bryant would get them into trouble since they would be referred to as “plutonium” and would need to be removed.
Sky Cornell, a public information officer for the LA County Fire Department, testified before a jury on Tuesday that after it was discovered that first responders had shared pictures of the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna, 13, in 2020, they went into damage control.
According to Cornell, an administrator cautioned the department about what they were doing while the photographs were being disseminated. Cornell had previously told investigators that he ‘wanted to see Kobe’
Folks, just a friendly reminder: There are no secrets! People are exposed somehow,’ the email said, according to Cornell.
He continued by saying that his colleague Tony Imbrenda had labelled the images “plutonium” and that he needed to “get rid of them” after admitting to distributing them at an awards ceremony.
Imbrenda, another public information officer, was interrogated on Wednesday while testifying that he posted images of the helicopter accident on social media at the Southern California 2020 Golden Mike awards banquet.
It was at that time, according to Cornell, that he first saw the pictures, none of which revealed Bryant’s corpse but did show other human remains.
Although the context was inappropriate for sharing the graphic images, Cornell said they were utilised as a “training” opportunity when he spoke in court on Thursday.
Arlin Kahan, another fire officer who testified on Thursday, claimed to have been the one to take the original images of the collision and send them to Imbrenda, who Kahan referred to as “the one who handles the photos.”
Kahan said that his photographs were not meant to capture human remains but rather to capture the disaster site.
Widow The assertion was contested by Vanessa Bryant’s attorney, who said Kahan was not the one who took the images of the collision for documentational reasons but rather a fire captain.
The lawyer reportedly said, “You weren’t even a first responder,” as reported by Insider.
Kahan also said that he intended to remove the pictures when the inquiry was over.
A former LA County fireman named Brian Jordan stated on Monday that he had received instructions from his superiors to snap pictures of the helicopter crash scene, but the fire chiefs denied ever giving such orders.
Jordan, who vehemently denied providing the pictures to anybody other than members of the sheriff’s or fire departments, sometimes showed signs of confusion.
This story is still developing.