A FIRE captain who was at the scene of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others testified on Monday about his trauma following the wreck.
Brian Jordan said that witnessing the aftermath of the accident pushed him to retire, and that he is still haunted by what he saw.
Jordan is accused by Kobe’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, of publicly sharing the gruesome photos of Kobe, their daughter Gianna, 13, and the other victims’ bodies.
Vanessa’s suit alleges that Jordan took graphic, closely-cropped photos of body parts on the scene, but Jordan claims that he was only doing what was instructed of him and denied improperly sharing the images.
When Vanessa’s lawyers described the photos of the body parts, Jordan repeatedly left the courtroom.
“It was horrifying and what put me off the job,” he said.
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Jordan retired in 2021 and testified that he had mentally blocked out the day.
“I was there. I do not remember being there. Please stop describing the scene to me,” he said.
“Please refrain from taking my brain back to that crash site. I’m not sure what I was taking pictures of.”
When asked if he photographed Kobe’s remains, Jordan asked to take a break and leave the courtroom.
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After returning, he said: “I have an image in my head that is not pleasant.
“The way that whole scene looked is going to haunt me forever.”
LEAKED PHOTOS
The 41-year-old NBA legend and his daughter were on their way to the Mamba Academy for basketball practice when their private helicopter went down in January 2020.
Kobe’s Sikorsky-76 chopper came down in fog in the Calabasas mountains northwest of Los Angeles.
Vanessa, his wife of 20 years, was reportedly horrified when California cops were accused of showing off horrific photos of the tragedy.
Vanessa’s attorney described allegations that cops shared the photos of victims’ remains in a bar as “an unspeakable violation of human decency, respect, and of the privacy rights of the victims and their families.”
He called for those who shared the photos to “face the harshest possible discipline, and that their identities be brought to light, to ensure that the photos are not further disseminated.”
‘VERY, VERY DISTURBING’
A young Californian police officer allegedly leaked photos of the NBA legend’s body in a bid to impress a woman at a bar.
Bryant’s lawsuit alleged that within 48 hours of the crash, photos had spread to at least 10 members of the department.
One deputy took between 25 and 100 photos of the crash scene on his cell phone, according to the suit.
There is also disturbing allegations about what deputies did with the photos of Kobe, Gianna, and the other passengers.
The second part of the lawsuit included allegations that officer Joey Cruz showed crash photographs to a bartender at the Baja California Bar and Grill in Norwalk, California.
One of the customers described his alleged actions as “very, very disturbing.”
Cruz is also accused of showing the photos to his niece.
He also allegedly made “a crude remark about the state of the victims’ remains.”
The suit alleges that on the day of the crash, Rafael Mejia, who was assigned to the crash site, obtained photos from fire department personnel.
He then allegedly walked over to chat with a female deputy who wasn’t involved in the investigation – and for no reason other than “morbid gossip,” sent them to her cellphone.
Mejia is accused of passing the photos to Cruz, a trainee deputy at the time in the suit.
Another officer, deputy Michael Russell, allegedly sent photos to a friend with whom he “plays video games nightly.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies linked to the leak were told they would not get in trouble if they deleted the pictures, reported the Los Angeles Times.
