2 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 14 Number 5


February 2020


Kobe Bryant’s Passing Stuns Generations of Athletes, Fans


BY BRENDA BUCHANON, CONTRIBUTING WRITER Kobe Bean Bryant, the former


Los Angeles Laker icon and five-time National Basketball Association (NBA) champion died at the age of 41 on Sunday, January 26, 2020 in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. The helicopter pilot, Ara Zobayan, Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and six passengers perished in the flight to Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California. The victims, along with Bryant and Gianna and Zobayan, included: John and Keri Altobelli, and daughter, Alyssa; Sarah Chester and daughter, Payton; and Christina Mauser.


According to a news report


captured on LiveATC.net website, visibility was low and the pilot was


flying under “special visual flight rules” (SVR). Zobayan was a licensed commercial pilot and instrument-certified pilot as well. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.


Bryant was born August 23,


1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three children and only son of Joe “Jellybean” Bryant and wife, Pamela Cox Bryant. His father was an NBA player which provided the Bryant children with travels around the world. Bryant played in the NBA from for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 -2016 after being drafted in Round 1 of the NBA drafter and picked 13th overall.


There are no details of funeral/ memorial arrangements at this time KOBE BRYANT PAGE 14


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