Photographer stabbed while father waited upstairs

BILLINGS (AP) — The father of photographer Michael S. Sample was in the building where he and his famous son worked when the stabbing that took his son’s life occurred near his office in Billings.

Sample, 66, who  was stabbed on Thursday, was known for his work in calendars and books. He also was vice president of the Sample Foundation Inc., a family foundation with offices located in the same building as Sample’s photography business.

Sample’s father, Joseph S. Sample, a philanthropist and chairman of the foundation, said that he and Michael had gone out for lunch together Thursday and had returned to their offices. Sample said he went to the foundation’s office on the second floor.

“I heard yelling down below and didn’t pay much attention” because the area gets so many drunks and panhandlers. 

Joseph Sample said doctors first said the stab wound hadn’t affected any organs and that his son’s vital signs were fine. Twenty minutes later, his heart stopped, Joseph Sample said.

Officers took 23-year-old Zachariah James Wiseman into custody shortly after the stabbing. He was being held on suspicion of deliberate homicide.