Kobe Bryant’s wife sobbed as she testified about the moment she found out about leaked pictures of the helicopter crash that killed the basketball legend and her daughter.
Vanessa Bryant wept in a Los Angeles courtroom as she told a jury she was breastfeeding her youngest daughter when news reports about the photos taken by police and fire officials emerged.
Ms Bryant, 40, told the court that she had dashed outside her home so that her surviving daughters would not see her devastation.
“I felt like I wanted to run down the block and scream,” Ms Bryant reportedly testified on Friday.
“I can’t escape my body. I can’t escape what I feel.”
And she told the court that more than two years after the fatal accident that killed seven others, she still suffers panic attacks that photos of the bodies of her late husband and 13-year-old Gianna will publicly surface.
“I live in fear. I live in fear every day of seeing on social media and having these images pop up,” she testified.
“I don’t ever want to see these photographs. I want to remember them as they were,” she said.
And she added that she felt that she felt betrayed by county officials in the wake of the accident that shattered her family.
“I expected them to have more compassion...respect,” Ms Bryant testified. “My husband and my daughter deserve dignity.”
The Bryants and the other seven victims died in the crash on 26 January 2020 when the helicopter came down as they flew from Orange County to a basketball tournament.
Ms Bryant’s lawyers have told the jury in the case that in the days after the accident, police and fire officials employed by the county showed off photos of the crash site that included the bodies of the victims.
Ms Bryant and fellow plaintiff Christopher Chester have not seen the photos but are suing the county for emotional distress and the threat that they will one day become public.
Mr Chester, an Orange County financial adviser, lost his wife Sarah, and their 13-year-old daughter Payton, in the crash.
Also killed in the crash were John Altobelli; his wife, Keri Altobelli; their 14-year-old daughter Alyssa Altobelli; coach Christina Mauser; and the pilot, Ara Zobayan.
The families of Mauser and the Altobellis sued over the photos and settled with Los Angeles County last November for $1.25m each.
