Vanessa Bryant airs out the officers who shared her husband and daughter’s graphic photos following their fatal helicopter crash.
The widow and mother of four unleashed a series of Instagram posts that pointed out four Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies who took photos of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna Bryant, in death at the crash site. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that the officer’s identities, Joey Cruz, Rafael Mejia, Michael Russell, and Raul Versales, could be made public.
The officers are also accused of taking the photos and sharing them with at least ten Sheriff’s department members. One of the deputies is said to have taken between 25 and 100 photos of the crash scene on his personal cell phone.
According to screenshots of the lawsuit documents that Vanessa Bryant shared, Cruz showed the graphic photos to a bartender at the Baja California Bar and Grill two days after the crash. The bartender told guests at one table about the incident with Cruz. One of them was so disturbed by what they’d heard that he filed an official complaint with the Sheriff’s department before pulling out of the restaurant’s parking lot.
Bryant is also taking aim at Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who allegedly told deputies that they would not be disciplined if they deleted the pictures. He also failed to report the incident to internal affairs, and the officers were not investigated, according to Bryant’s lawsuit against Los Angeles County, the Sheriff’s department, the county fire department, and the four deputies.
