A mural depicting Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna by artist Mr Brainwash is seen in Los Angeles.
Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, publicly called for the LA County Sheriff's Department to release the names of deputies who took or shared photos of Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant and seven other victims of a helicopter crash in Calabasas last January.
On social media, Vanessa Bryant said redacting the names creates a double standard.
"They want their names to be exempt from the public," Vanessa Bryant posted on her Instagram account Saturday, referring to about the department's desire to redact the names of deputies who took or shared photos of the victims. "Anyone else facing these allegations would be unprotected, named and released to the public."
She added, "Not all law enforcement is bad. These specific deputies need to be held accountable for their actions, just like everyone else."
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In the wake of the tragic January 2020 helicopter crash, the sheriff's department acknowledged that first responders had taken and shared photos of the victims' remains at the crash site.
Vanessa Bryant sued the sheriff's department in September over the photos of her husband, daughter and seven others who perished on that foggy morning in the San Fernando Valley.
The lawsuit alleges that one deputy used the photos in an attempt to impress a woman at a bar and that the bartender overheard the conversations and filed a written complaint with the department.
LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva ordered all photos destroyed, after acknowledging that several deputies were involved in taking and sharing of photos of the victims' remains.
The first responders' actions led to California creating a new law making it a crime for first responders to take unauthorized photos of deceased people at the scene of an accident or crime.
NBCLA contacted the LASD Saturday, but the sheriff's department offered no comment on the pending litigation or Vanessa Bryant's calls to publicly identify the deputies involved.
