{"id":256607,"date":"2026-04-08T00:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256607\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:10:08","slug":"family-of-sf-state-grad-allegedly-killed-by-boyfriend-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256607\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of SF State grad allegedly killed by boyfriend speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly before a young man fatally shot his girlfriend in his Sunset District apartment in what he told police was a \u201cdry-firing\u201d accident, she had moved in. Samantha Emge planned to live in the small one-bedroom unit while her boyfriend, Nation Wood, went off for basic training with the National Guard.<\/p>\n

As Emge\u2019s parents said goodbye to the 22-year-old woman after helping her move in on March 22, they felt both worried and hopeful, they said in an interview with the Chronicle.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A photo of Samantha Katherine Emge, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident and recent graduate of San Francisco State University, who was fatally shot by her boyfriend, Nation Wood, is seen in her family\u2019s home in Sacramento on Sunday, April 5, 2026.<\/p>\n

Andri Tambunan\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n

Wood, 25, was set to leave for Missouri a few days later and had moved out all of his belongings so Emge could make the space her own. His months away, they thought, would provide an opportunity for them to convince her to permanently leave behind an unstable relationship.<\/p>\n

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Two days later, Emge was dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wood, a former college baseball player and low-level White House staffer, has told authorities he was dry-firing \u2014 a form of gun practice \u2014 by pulling the trigger of what he thought was an unloaded pistol while pointing it at a wall adjacent to the apartment\u2019s only bathroom, where Emge was preparing for bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The San Francisco State graduate and budding interior designer who loved ones called \u201cSam\u201d was struck in the head by a single bullet that ripped through the wall and a medicine cabinet. She died at a hospital shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

After city homicide detectives arrested Wood on suspicion of felony involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors filed the same charge in court, signaling they believed they could prove the killing was negligent, but not willful. Wood pleaded not guilty, appearing to cry throughout his arraignment, and within days was released on a $300,000 bail to UCSF\u2019s psychiatric hospital after he was deemed suicidal, court filings show.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only information that we have is that this conduct was not \u2014 or that the death was not \u2014 intentional,\u201d District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said after a hearing on April 1.<\/p>\n

The case is in its early stages. But already, tensions are mounting over how Wood should be treated.<\/p>\n

In letters attached to a motion filed Monday by his attorney asking the judge to release him to an intensive trauma program in Arizona, his family members described Wood as a \u201ckind and loving soul\u201d suffering from debilitating grief over Emge\u2019s death. They said Wood had excelled as a student and baseball player growing up in Kirkland, Wash., despite his mother\u2019s alcoholism and \u201csevere verbal and psychological abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI fully understand the importance of justice,\u201d wrote Lois Wood, his grandmother, who is the former chief deputy prosecutor in Franklin County, Wash. \u201cI also know that when someone is at genuine risk of harming themselves, ensuring they receive proper care is not only humane, but also essential to preventing this tragedy from being compounded further.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s attorney, Paula Canny, wrote in her filing that the case did not involve domestic violence in its \u201ccommon meaning,\u201d and that the couple was in a loving, committed relationship. She said Wood\u2019s family believed he had been sober for 15 months on the night of the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n

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But Emge\u2019s parents, sisters and friends tell a different story. In interviews, they said they worried about Emge throughout the couple\u2019s 2 \u00bd-year-long relationship, citing incidents they witnessed or that were recounted by Emge. Not long after the couple got together in December 2023, they said, the relationship became defined by Wood\u2019s alcohol use, possessive behavior and aggressive outbursts \u2014 and Emge\u2019s repeated attempts to leave him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The family of Samantha Katherine Emge, (L-R): Jason Spears, Laura Emge, Sierra Spears, Kate Spears, and Elle Spears, look over her old sketchbook at their family home in Sacramento, CA on Sunday, April 5, 2026. Emge, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident and recent graduate of San Francisco State University, was fatally shot by her boyfriend, Nation Wood.<\/p>\n

Andri Tambunan\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n

William Phipps, Emge\u2019s biological father who lives in Florida, said he and his wife felt \u201cunimaginable sadness, emptiness, loss, disbelief, anger, disgust, resentment and regret.\u00a0There is no way to express the combination of all of these feelings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Laura Emge said that when she repeatedly warned her daughter that Wood\u2019s behavior was unacceptable, her daughter would promise to break up with him, eventually. \u201cThat\u2019s what her common words were: \u2018Don\u2019t worry mom, I will,” Laura Emge said in an interview at the family\u2019s Sacramento home. \u201cI think her heart just bled for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and other family members said they did not fully believe Wood\u2019s account and did not understand how the district attorney\u2019s office could conclude so quickly that the shooting was accidental.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Experts on law enforcement practices and gun training said dry-firing helps build shooting mechanics, but that safety \u2014 making certain to use an unloaded gun and aim at an impenetrable target \u2014 is the most important consideration.<\/p>\n

Edward Obayashi, a special prosecutor and policy adviser to the Modoc County Sheriff\u2019s Office, said he would not advise anyone to dry-fire in a home or any uncontrolled environment. Don Cameron, a former Berkeley police sergeant who has trained at police academies, said the situation was \u201cboggling his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou either didn\u2019t rigidly check the gun, the chamber, or the magazine,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cAll of that says he left the round somewhere where it shouldn\u2019t have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the family\u2019s concerns, Jenkins said Tuesday in a statement, \u201cMy office will continue to do everything we can to support them and seek justice in the courthouse for them.\u201d She said the case was still under investigation and that \u201cIf any new evidence comes to light that is admissible in court and sufficient to meet our burden of proof, we may seek to file an amended complaint to reflect more or different charges from what was initially charged.\u201d<\/p>\n

In interviews, Samantha Emge\u2019s family and friends described her as a woman with a keen gift for style and the visual arts, constantly drawing and decorating, seeing beauty and promise in things discarded or overlooked.<\/p>\n

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Born in Akron, Ohio, she took on the nickname \u201cSnow White\u201d due to her fair skin, dark hair and blue eyes. She moved to California as a toddler after her parents separated, raised at first by her mother, a pediatrician, and maternal grandparents near Sacramento. The family later expanded when her mother married a hospitalist, Jason Spears, whose four young daughters, along with a younger sister born soon after, formed a tight-knit group of six girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would get something that everybody would think was ugly, and then she would put it on, and it was perfect,\u201d said one of her sisters, Sierra Spears, 24, a University of Hawaii student working on her master\u2019s degree in landscape architecture. The two had dreamed of opening up a design studio in the future.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A photo showing a heart tattooed on the wrist of Samantha Katherine Emge and some members of her family is seen on Sunday, April 5, 2026 in Sacramento. Emge, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident and recent graduate of San Francisco State University, was fatally shot by her boyfriend, Nation Wood.<\/p>\n

Andri Tambunan\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n

Emge\u2019s family said she decided on S.F. State because it was highly ranked for interior design. Moving to the city, she worked at\u00a0Joybird, a furniture store in the Marina, where she would spend her work breaks making 3-D layouts of friends\u2019 and family members\u2019 homes, to see if a couch she thought would be perfect for the space would fit. Often, she had memorized the dimensions.<\/p>\n

In the winter of her junior year, she met Wood in a political science class.<\/p>\n

Wood had transferred from Saddleback College, a junior college in Mission Viejo (Orange County), where he\u2019d compiled a .449 batting average for the baseball team during a pandemic-shortened season. Seeking to follow in the footsteps of his father, who had played baseball for the University of Washington, he had initially landed a scholarship offer to join Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo in 2022 as an outfielder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the school withdrew the offer for unclear reasons. (Cal Poly officials declined to comment, citing privacy reasons.) After injuries to his hand and shoulder, he decided he would never play at the level he had hoped to reach, his attorney said. \u201cHe had a lot of dashed dreams,\u201d Canny said.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

San Francisco resident Nation Wood, pictured playing football, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Samantha Emge, 22. Wood told authorities he was “dry-firing” his weapon when the bullet struck Emge in their apartment on March 24, 2026.<\/p>\n

Provided by Mike Wood<\/p>\n

While studying at S.F. State, Wood began working part-time for the White House between November 2023 and July 2025. A White House spokesperson confirmed that he was employed during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

Within weeks of their first meeting on campus, Wood asked Emge to be his girlfriend and invited her to visit his family in Washington, her family and friends said. But within a month, Emge told friends that Wood had \u201csome issues,\u201d many stemming from experiences with his mother, her friends said.<\/p>\n

In court filings, his family members wrote that they believed Wood at a young age felt a \u201cdeep sense of responsibility\u201d for his mother during erratic episodes when she threatened to harm herself.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Emge and Wood was still nascent when he departed for Spain for a study-abroad program. At the time, Emge was living with roommates in Parkmerced near S.F. State. Wood\u2019s drinking escalated in Spain, leading to an altercation at a bar that left him hospitalized, Laura Emge said. Canny confirmed the incident but said Wood had been \u201cjumped\u201d while partying in Madrid.<\/p>\n

After Wood returned home in May 2024, Emge\u2019s close friends and roommates, Avani Nunez and Olivia Cusenza, told her they did not feel comfortable with Wood sleeping over. They were disturbed by episodes when he would yell at Emge, show up drunk at their doorstep and make racist and homophobic comments, they said in interviews. They said they began locking their bedroom doors at night when he was over.<\/p>\n

That same month, Nunez told Laura Emge about Wood\u2019s behavior and her concerns for her daughter, according to text messages reviewed by the Chronicle. Nunez said she also told Samantha Emge that things her boyfriend did \u2014 such as breaking up with her for no reason before pretending he was joking \u2014 were examples of emotional abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Sam had done a lot of growing and she had become confident in a lot of ways, I think Sam had never felt like she had a lot to offer in a relationship, until she met Nation,\u201d Nunez said. \u201cShe always felt like she wouldn\u2019t find someone who would accept her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A collage of pictures and personal belongings of Samantha Katherine Emge, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident and recent graduate of San Francisco State University, who was fatally shot by her boyfriend in her apartment, is seen in her family\u2019s home in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

Andri Tambunan\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n

In a September 2024 text to Nunez, who by that point had moved out, Emge expressed feeling \u201cguilty\u201d for being a \u201cbad friend\u201d who spent too much time worrying about Wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething happened between (me and Nation) the other day and we\u2019ve barely spoken but it\u2019s made me realize how many things were wrong with our relationship that I was trying to protect and disregard,\u201d Emge wrote, not elaborating on what had occurred. \u201cHe literally turned me into the worst version of myself and I wish I would have listened to you and Olivia because I just feel lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

After several temporary break-ups, Emge staged an intervention, demanding Wood seek treatment for alcoholism. In December 2024, he entered an intensive outpatient program in San Francisco, Canny confirmed. Emge\u2019s parents and sisters said they voiced their worries during this period about the continued turbulence he was bringing to her life. But she told her mother he had been nicer while committing to sobriety and wanted to give him another chance.<\/p>\n

The promise of something better didn\u2019t last long, her friends said in interviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Haven Silva, who worked with Emge at Joybird, recalled that at nearly every one of their periodic dinners, Emge fielded calls and texts from Wood demanding to know details of what she was doing. He would often impose \u201ccurfews\u201d of 10 p.m., though they did not live together, Silva said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In December 2025, Emge broke up with him again, telling friends she was tired of his controlling tendencies, they said. But within months, the couple was back together and Emge sheepishly told her friends she felt silly about being upset over behavior that was rooted in how much he cared for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last fall, Emge landed a job as a design assistant for Chantal Lamberto Interior Design in Presidio Heights. But by that time, she had already been living on her own in a small studio in Oceanview.<\/p>\n

In January, Wood was sworn into the National Guard\u2019s Special Forces. Wanting a bigger place that had a kitchen, Emge gave up her studio and decided to live in his apartment while he was gone, a decision she made in part because he said he would pay the rent, her family and friends said.<\/p>\n

As he prepared to leave, packing his things in boxes and moving them into the garage, Emge seemed calmer than she had in previous months, her family and friends said. She sanitized the empty apartment, excited to decorate. She said she was looking forward to hosting dinners at the place she had set up as her own, going out with friends without drama, staying out late and setting her phone to \u201cDo Not Disturb.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new life was just days away.<\/p>\n

\"Photos<\/p>\n

Photos of Samantha Katherine Emge with her sisters, are seen on the fireplace mantle of her family\u2019s home in Sacramento on Sunday, April 5, 2026. Emge, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident and recent graduate of San Francisco State University, was shot dead by her boyfriend, Nation Wood.<\/p>\n

Andri Tambunan\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly before a young man fatally shot his girlfriend in his Sunset District apartment in what he told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[184,7,723,121,123,122,101,2013],"class_list":{"0":"post-256607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-sacramento","12":"tag-sacramento-headlines","13":"tag-sacramento-news","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-us-and-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}