Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Kobe Bryant, said she learned about the basketball star's death when social media notifications began showing up on her phone -- hours before she got the official confirmation from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
"I was holding onto my phone, because obviously I was trying to call my husband back, and all these notifications started popping up on my phone, saying 'RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe. RIP Kobe,'" Vanessa Bryant said in a deposition on October 12.Kobe Bryant, NBA superstar and future Hall of Famer, is dead at 41Bryant, 41, and one of his daughters, Gianna, 13, were among nine people killed when a helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California, on January 26, 2020.
"Bryant said that on the day of the crash, representatives of the sheriff's department repeatedly refused to answer her questions about the condition of her family members until Sheriff Alex Villanueva arrived and told her personally that they had died."And he says, 'Is there anything I can do for you?' And I said: If you can't bring my husband and baby back, please make sure no one takes photographs of them," Bryant said, according to the deposition transcript.