Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
A retired Los Angeles Fire Department captain testified he was ordered to film the scene of the helicopter crash that killed Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna Bryant and seven others Photo.
“I followed a lot of instructions that day but was told, ‘Take a picture, take a picture, take a picture,'” Brian Jordan in court That said, according to TMZ Sports.
Kobe and Gianna Bryant head to Mamba Sports Academy to watch Kyungsoo on January 26, 2020 Anna’s game. Passengers Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan were also killed when the helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California.
Vanessa Bryant filed a lawsuit in September 2020 alleging the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy took pictures of the crash , and share it with people outside the department.
LAFD conducted its own investigation and determined that the May 2021 imagery taken by two firefighters “was not of any commercial necessity” , “just to cater to lower instincts and a thirst for visual gossip.”
According to USA TODAY
Brent Schrottenbauer, Jordan was determined by the department to have taken some of the photos and planned Fire him before his voluntary retirement.
Luis Li, an attorney for Bryant, argued in a court filing that Jordan “was directly concerned with human remains, and photos were then sent to at least one other department employee who shared them over cocktails at a public awards ceremony.”
Jordan’s attorney, Steven Haney, countered that his client was “just following orders.” Schrotenboer also noted that Jordan “disputed many of the department’s findings and said the county made him a scapegoat for its own shortcomings.”
Jordan’s Los Angeles County Sheriff, Deputy Doug Johnson, said he “did nothing wrong” and was ordered to document the crash scene.
Johnson testified that he sent 25 photos to a deputy at a nearby command post and airdropped them to a LAFD director. He described sharing and receiving photos of bodies as “routine”. How a photo of the crash taken by a sheriff’s deputy was shared among a dozen sheriff’s deputies and a dozen other LAFD members.
