Vanessa Bryant Promises Legal Action Against People Who Leaked Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash Photos

Vanessa Bryant‘s legal team released a statement calling for “the harshest possible discipline” to those who reportedly leaked gruesome photos from the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, 13-year-old Gianna Bryant and seven others.

“Our client, Vanessa Bryant, is absolutely devastated by allegations that deputies from the Lost Hills Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department publicly disseminated photos from the helicopter crash site,” the statement read.

In the days after the crash, a bartender reported hearing a sheriff’s deputy trainee boasting to a woman about the photos he took of the crash on his phone, according to a report Thursday by the Los Angeles Times. The bartender then submitted a formal complaint to the department online. The Times also reported other instances where deputies talked about the pictures they took from the crash.

The sheriff’s department reportedly told deputies with photos that if they came forward with the pictures they took and deleted them that they wouldn’t face any discipline. A complaint, like the one the bartender raised, would have normally triggered a formal inquiry.

The sheriff’s department released this statement on Facebook on Friday after the Los Angeles Times story was published:

Vanessa Bryant reportedly went to the police department the day of the crash to ask them to designate the area a no-fly zone and take steps to protect the crash site from photographers, according to her attorney Gary C. Robb.