Two more victims of the helicopter crash that involved Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant have been identified. Keri Altobelli, the wife of Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, and their daughter Alyssa Altobelli, were in the helicopter when it crashed on Sunday morning with the coach. Bryant’s daughter, Gianna Bryant, 13, also died in the crash.
Heartbroken to learn that OCC coach, John Altobelli, wife Keri & daughter Alyssa died in today’s helicopter crash w/ Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna & others.
A tremendous educator, Alto is the reason we “Pull The Rope”
📸 OCC & U-M’s Cody Bruder, in this year’s OCC’s alumni gm pic.twitter.com/0dLWJ8nEr3
— Michigan Baseball (@umichbaseball) January 26, 2020
John Altobelli’s brother, Tony Altobelli, told CNN the baseball coach, his wife and their daughter were among the victims. OCC assistant coach Ron La Ruffa said Alyssa and Gianna are teammates and they were heading to the Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California.
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“It was something John routinely did, flying up with Kobe to attend games with his daughter,” La Ruffa said.
Earlier Sunday, La Ruffa confirmed to the Los Angeles Daily News Altobelli was on the helicopter.
Altobelli was the longest-tenured baseball coach in OCC’s history and lived in Newport Beach. He and Keri also have another daughter, Alexis, and a son, J.J., who works as a scout for the Boston Red Sox.
Let’s pray for the friends and family of John Altobelli and his daughter who were killed in the same helicopter crash with Kobe and his daughter
John Altobelli was the Head Coach of the Orange Coast County Baseball team
RIP pic.twitter.com/q3nQMtKeqV
— Abdul Memon (@abdulamemon) January 26, 2020
Those who worked with Altobelli and knew his family shared condolences on Twitter.
Bryant’s helicopter crashed just before 10 a.m. PT in Calabasas, California. In an afternoon press conference, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed there were at least nine people on board, including the pilot. There were no survivors.
this is a picture of kobe bryant and john altobelli, both killed on the helicopter crash that happened early today. rest in peace to both of these men. pic.twitter.com/9mJD1tsTDZ
— makai (@realmakaipahoa) January 26, 2020
Officials only confirmed that Bryant and Gianna were victims of the crash and did not reveal the identities of the others until next of kin was notified.
“There has been wide speculation about [what] the identities [of the other victims] are, however it would be entirely inappropriate right now to identify anyone by name, until the coroner has made the identifications… and they’ve made notifications to the next of kin,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.
Villanueva also called out TMZ for reporting Bryant’s death before his family could be notified, adding it would be “extremely disrespectful” for families to learn the deaths of their loved ones from the website.
Photo credit: Getty Images
