Teenage son of war photographer appears in court charged with murder

A 19-year-old has appeared in court charged with killing his British photojournalist father at a hiking trial in California.

Paul Lowe, who covered conflicts including the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, was pronounced dead on October 12 in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Mr Lowe died from a stab wound to the neck, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office.

His teenage son Emir Abadzic Lowe has appeared at the West Covina Courthouse in Los Angeles, charged with murder.

A judge set his bail at 2.02 million dollars (£1.6 million).

The teenager will next appear in court on December 9 – the day before he turns 20 – for his arraignment, a court heard.

Abadzic Lowe faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if he is convicted as charged.

“Our thoughts are with Mr Lowe’s loved ones during this tragic time,” LA District Attorney George Gascon said.

“We will pursue justice for the victim and ensure that the offender is held accountable for his actions.”

Officials from the San Bernardino Fire Department were called to the scene by a passer-by, a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

Following his death, Lowe was remembered by colleagues as “courageous and beloved”.

Santiago Lyon, former vice president and director of photography at The Associated Press, paid tribute to Mr Lowe, having worked with him during the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s.

“Paul was a very talented, courageous and committed photojournalist who repeatedly put himself in harm’s way to show the world the reality of war zones and humanitarian crises around the world,” he said.

“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.”

Mr Lowe was a professor at the University of the Arts London, a visiting professor in war studies at King’s College London (KCL) and taught at an academy through the VII Foundation, which trains emerging visual journalists from communities underrepresented in the media.

The foundation described Lowe as a “courageous and beloved comrade, and a deeply devoted father and husband”.

KCL said the award-winning photojournalist would be “deeply missed”.

“A friend, colleague and collaborator whose work had a huge impact in shining a spotlight on the Siege of Sarajevo and addressing its legacy, we were privileged to work with him on several projects related to art and reconciliation.

“His boundless energy, warmth, creativity, initiative and enthusiasm were contagious and uniquely inspiring. He will be deeply missed,” a statement on X said.

Mr Lowe, who wrote several books about his war reporting, told The Guardian in 2022 that he “became preoccupied with what happens to ordinary, educated, cultured people when they’re reduced to the medieval conditions caused by a siege” when he was in Sarajevo.

“People would risk their lives for a little pleasure,” he told the newspaper. “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.”

According to police, the incident around his death happened at 3.28pm at Mount Baldy Road, near Stoddard Canyon Falls.

A statement from the sheriff’s department said officers responding to call about an assault with a deadly weapon found a “white male adult suffering trauma to his upper torso”.

“San Bernardino Fire Department personnel responded and pronounced the victim dead at the scene,” it added.

“A white male adult was seen driving away from the scene and was subsequently involved in a solo traffic collision a few miles away. The male was detained pending further investigation.”