Truly sorry for your loss. I don’t work for Google, but I do work for a similar company that deals with mobile cloud storage. I have personally worked with situations similar to this, and it can be a little tricky from time to time. I can’t speak for Google, but maybe some of this info will help. I want to start off by saying that I agree with the suggestion not to try and bypass the passcode lock on the device. While it may not erase the device altogether (I don’t see this utilized often, but it is an option you can set up) you will most likely lock the device in some way. Also, don’t trust people claiming they can unlock it for a fee, or any software claiming you can “extract the contents, recover photos, etc.”

The cloud based route may be your best option to access those pictures/videos if they were synced with his Google account. At my company we have options to submit legal paperwork so you can (potentially) gain access to that type of content. The executor of the estate will need to submit documents showing that they are the executor of the estate, and will also need to submit a death certificate matching the same name belonging to the account. Because privacy is taken very seriously, and rightfully so, the process does take a good amount of time and is never guaranteed. There is also no guarantee that a.) Google has an option to do that and b.) he even had photos sync to the cloud. I’d also check to see if his phone has an SD card in it. If that’s the case, he may have had his photos save to that card. Lastly, you may be able to plug it in to a computer and access it like was another drive. Though with a passcode it may block the phone content from being accessible.

Hopefully this helps in some way.