Kobe Bryant photos lawsuit: Why do cops keep and share images of dead bodies?

Editor's note: This story contains descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.

Two days after Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash last year, a law enforcement officer sat at a restaurant bar near Los Angeles and struck up a conversation with the bartender.

“Hey, have you heard about Kobe?” asked the officer, Joey Cruz.

“Yeah,” the bartender replied. “It’s sad.”

“Well, I have a few pictures” Cruz told him, according to the testimony of the bartender filed this month in federal court. “Want to see them?”

Surveillance footage from the bar shows Cruz sharing his phone with the bartender, who later testified about what he saw on that phone. Cruz had obtained photos from the crash scene.