Teen Charged in Stabbing Death of Famous Photographer Father

A teen has been charged for the murder of his father, British photojournalist Paul Lowe, who was stabbed over the weekend while hiking in California’s San Gabriel Mountains.
Lowe, 60, who is known for his work documenting historic global events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela’s release, was found with “trauma to his upper torso” near Stoddard Canyon Falls on Saturday and pronounced dead, according to a statement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The county medical examiner later confirmed that he died from a stab wound in the neck.
Witnesses reported seeing a man later identified as Lowe’s son, Emir Abadzic Lowe, fleeing the scene in a vehicle. The 19-year old was involved in a solo crash a few miles from the crime scene and was arrested after authorities matched evidence from scene and witness accounts.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged him with one count of murder in connection with his father’s death.
Details surrounding the motive remain unclear. The district attorney’s office has yet to confirm when Emir Lowe will appear in court or if he has legal representation.
Newsweek reached out to Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office via email on Wednesday for comment.
Paul Lowe, who served as a professor at the University of the Arts London, specialized in conflict photojournalism and gained acclaim for his work in war zones, particularly in Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo. His book, Bosnians, published in 2005, documented over a decade long war and its aftermath.
In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Lowe described capturing the harrowing conditions in Sarajevo, including scenes of children risking their lives in the city’s streets, often under sniper fire.
“People would risk their lives for a little pleasure,” he said. “And it could be very hard on kids, who obviously didn’t want to be stuck indoors. During quieter periods, they were able to go outside more—I took a picture of children swimming in the river during a ceasefire. But the river, like so much of the city, was clearly visible to Serbian snipers. One winter, I attended an awful scene: a group of five or six children had been killed by a shell while sledging in front of their house.”
Meanwhile, the photojournalism community is mourning his loss as they pay tribute to him.
Santiago Lyon, a former Associated Press vice president and director of photography who worked with Lowe during the Sarajevo siege in the early 1990s, called him “a courageous and committed photojournalist” who “showed the world the reality of war zones and humanitarian crises.”
“He then became an accomplished and well respected educator dedicated to preparing future generations of photojournalists. His untimely death has profoundly affected the photojournalism community and we are in shock,” Lyon told the AP.
Lowe also dedicated much of his later career to educating future photojournalists, working with The VII Foundation, which trains journalists from underrepresented communities.
“Paul was a courageous and beloved comrade, and a deeply devoted father and husband. The loss is shocking and overwhelming, and our hearts go out to his wife and family,” the foundation posted in a statement online.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.