Vanessa Bryant Donating the $16M Won in Kobe Crash Site Photos Lawsuit to Mamba and Mambacita Foundation

According to reports, Vanessa Bryant intends to give the sports nonprofit organization that her husband, Kobe Bryant, founded the $16 million she was awarded in her lawsuit against Los Angeles County.

The widow told the Los Angeles Times that she was donating the money to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation “to shine a light on Kobe and Gigi’s legacy.”

According to its website, the Black Mamba charity offers funding and sports programs for young athletes in underserved communities.

The 41-year-old NBA legend and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash, so the foundation was renamed in 2020.

After first responders captured and circulated graphic images of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, daughter, and seven other people, a federal jury decided on Wednesday that LA County must pay Vanessa Bryant $16 million.

Plaintiff Chris Chester, who lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter Payton in the Calabasas, California, crash, was also given $15 million by the jury.

“From the beginning, Vanessa Bryant has sought only accountability, but our legal system does not permit her to force better policies, more training, or officer discipline,” her attorney Luis Li said. “Those measures are the responsibility of the sheriff’s and fire departments — responsibilities that Mrs. Bryant’s efforts have exposed as woefully deficient, even giving amnesty to the wrongdoers.”