Vanessa Bryant came to LeBron James’ defense after Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva challenged the NBA star to donate $175,000 in reward money to help catch the suspect who shot two officers in Compton last weekend.
“This challenge is to LeBron James,” Villanueva said on Monday (Sept. 14). “I want you to match that and double that reward. Because I know you care about law enforcement, you expressed a very, very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and officer-involved shootings and the impact it has on the African American community and I appreciate that.”
Taking to her Instagram Story on Monday, Vanessa tagged James in a reposted a comment that read: “He shouldn’t be challenging LeBron James to match a reward or ‘to step up to the plate.’ He couldn’t even ‘step up to the plate’ and hold his deputies accountable for photographing dead children.” The statement was in reference to deputies taking photos at Kobe Bryant’s crash site. The grieving widow also reposted another comment reading, “How can he talk about trusting the system? His sheriff’s dept. couldn’t be trusted to secure Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash scene, his deputies took and shared graphic photos of crash victims. Vanessa Bryant is suing them.”
In January, Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, died in the tragic plane crash along with seven other victims. According to Vanessa’s lawsuit, Villanueva assured her that the crash site had been secured.
“In reality, however, no fewer than eight sheriff’s deputies were at the scene snapping cell-phone photos of the dead children, parents, and coaches,” the claim states. “As the department would later admit, there was no investigative purpose for deputies to take pictures at the crash site. Rather, the deputies took photos for their own personal purposes.”