Grisly photos of Kobe Bryant's remains shared for 'gossip:' lawyers

Officials are looking closely at the weather in Southern California at the time of the crash that killed retired basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other passengers; chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt reports from Calabasas, California.

A lawyer for Vanessa Bryant told Los Angeles jurors Wednesday that gruesome photos of her husband Kobe Bryant's remains were shared by first responders as "visual gossip" with nearly 30 people – including at a bar and in a video game chat.

The basketball legend's widow is suing the county for invasion of privacy in U.S. District Court after a fire captain and deputy snapped the cellphone pictures at the site of a helicopter crash that killed Bryant, the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others in Calabasas, California, on Jan. 26, 2020.

Vanessa Bryant wept openly and dabbed her eyes during her lawyer's opening statement. 

"They were shared by deputies playing video games," the widow's attorney Luis Li told jurors. "They were shared repeatedly with people who had absolutely no reason to receive them."

VANESSA BRYANT LAWSUIT DETAILS HOW SHE DISCOVERED KOBE BRYANT AND DAUGHTER WERE DEAD 

Vanessa and Kobe Bryant arrive at the Oscars in Los Angeles, March 4, 2018. Vanessa is suing Los Angeles County over photos deputies shared of her husband's remains after he died in a 2020 helicopter crash. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

The day the Lakers star and their daughter perished in the fiery crash west of Los Angeles was the worst moment of Vanessa Bryant's life, the attorney said. 

"The county made it much worse. They poured salt in an open wound and rubbed it in," he said.

Vanessa Bryant learned of the grisly photos about a month after the tragedy through a