The widow of the late American basketball star Kobe Bryant announced in court on Friday that she was devastated to learn aid workers photographed the helicopter crash site where her husband, daughter and seven others died in early 2020. Vanessa Bryant said she was wary of the spread of the images online: “Once it spreads, there’s no going back.”

The NBA legend and his daughter Yana were among nine people killed when their helicopter crashed into a rock near Los Angeles in January 2020.

Vanessa Bryant claims she was emotionally stressed because LA police and firefighters took pictures of the crash site and then shared them, including at a bar, with friends and other rescuers.

The deputy chief of the county police admitted that he sent photos to one of his colleagues when they played the electronic game “Call of Duty”.

On Friday, Bryant told a Los Angeles court that she ran away from home to find a place to cry for her daughters when she found out about the photos.

“I broke down and cried, I just wanted to run and cry. I don’t want my girls to see this. I have three little girls, ”the Los Angeles Times quoted her as saying.

Bryant is suing the Los Angeles County Police for unspecified millions of dollars in damages in a case attached to that of Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter were killed in a crash.

The lawsuits allege negligence and breach of confidentiality.

Lawyers say the horrific cell phone photos were taken as “commemorative” photos by emergency workers, whose job it is not to take pictures.

The county’s lawyers do not deny that the photos were taken, but say they were never released to the public and have now been removed.

“From the moment of the accident until now, the county has worked tirelessly to prevent the distribution of images of the footage of the accident,” county spokesperson Mira Hashmal said in a civil lawsuit.

She continued, “After more than two and a half years, pictures of the boycott have not appeared in the media or on the Internet, and prosecutors admit they have not seen them before.”

Relatives of other victims received $2.5 million in compensation last year for the photographs they took.

An accident investigation concluded that the pilot may have become confused after his Sikorsky S-76 aircraft flew through the fog.