Live updates: Kobe Bryant’s crash site photos were shown at a bar and gala following his death, witnesses testify

A woman who lost two family members in the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna testified in court on Friday that weeks after the tragedy, she witnessed LA County fire officials sharing gruesome photos of the crash site at a gala. Luella Weireter, an integral witness in Bryant’s case, is intrinsically tied to the tragedy; she lost her cousin and in-law in the crash; later witnessed LA county fire officials sharing photos from the scene; and testified on Friday that she previously witnessed an LA sheriff’s deputy snap a gruesome photo of a suicide victim in an unrelated matter when she worked as an EMT. Weireter was one of two private citizens who filed complaints against LA County alleging that she saw two LA fire officials sharing graphic photos from the crash site at an awards ceremony less than a month after the tragedy.

Weireter testified that she heard one official say, “I can’t believe I just looked at Kobe’s burnt-up body and I’m about to eat. ” Read Full Story A private citizen said he felt a “sense of betrayal” when a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy showed grisly photos of Kobe Bryant’s dead body to a bartender, who went table-to-table telling patrons and employees about what he had just seen. Read Full Story A top Los Angeles County coroner on Thursday testified in graphic detail about the state of Kobe Bryant’s body following the 2020 helicopter crash.

Testimony from Capt. Emily Tauscher, the head of investigations at the LA County coroner’s office, took center stage on the second day of the trial between Vanessa Bryant and Los Angeles County . Tauscher painted a gruesome picture of the crash site, offering detailed insight into the grisly scene that would’ve been captured in the photos.

She also discussed the photo practices of the coroner’s office — describing a more ad-hoc approach to site photography in the sheriff’s department’s system that could’ve allowed photos to be taken and shared. Read Full Story Six months after the deadly helicopter crash, Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka and Vanessa Bryant took an all-terrain vehicle up the nearly 1,200-foot hill where Kobe and Gigi died. “Part of her journey of grief and healing was that she wanted to touch the soil from where they went to heaven,” Pelinka told the court on Wednesday of Vanessa’s decision to visit the crash site.

“We just knew that they were with us. ” Pelinka’s emotional testimony provided a window into Vanessa Bryant’s emotional state after the crash, and how her distress was compounded after learning that illicit crash site photos were taken. Read Full Story In opening statements, county attorney Mira Hashmall said that first responders from various agencies documented the crash site per their agency policies and “put their lives on the line” to respond to the crash and put out a resulting bushfire.

Hashmall added in her opening statement that 18 different federal and state agencies responded to the crash scene, including the FBI – and claimed that media agencies were the only entities who publicly disseminated photos of the crash. Hashmall said LASD Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s deletion order to staff who took photos helped “contain” the spread of the photos amid “lapses in judgment” from County staff who sent photos to each other. Vanessa Bryant said in her deposition that she learned of the crash via social media.

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