Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Boyfriend 'Accidentally' Shoots Girlfriend Dead in Shower

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

Nation Wood, a former White House security staffer, is charged with involuntary manslaughter after police say he shot and killed his 22-year-old girlfriend, Samantha Emge, inside their San Francisco apartment. Wood told investigators he was dry firing his gun—pulling the trigger on what he thought was an unloaded weapon—when a bullet went through a wall and struck Emge while she was in the bathroom. But does his story make sense? Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down the case in this episode of Crime Fix—a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at  https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents bonus for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Joseph Scott Morgan https://x.com/JoScottForensicSteve Wolf https://x.com/StuntScienceCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A White House security staffer, a girlfriend shot dead in the bathroom and a story that is raising a lot of questions. Nation Wood says he was dry firing his gun pulling the trigger on an empty weapon, but a bullet went through a wall and killed 22-year-old Samantha M.G. Now Wood is facing charges and we are asking the experts, does his story hold up? I'm Ann Jeanette Levy and this is Crime Fix. Before we get into this incredibly tragic case, I want to tell you about something that I've been using lately that I really like. It's an app called Upside and it will give you cash back on things that you buy all the time like gas, groceries, and takeout. Here's what you do. You download Upside for free.

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To start getting your cash back, click the link in the description or scan the QR code that you see right there on your screen and use our promo code Crime Fix to get an extra 25 cent bonus on every gallon on your first tank of gas. Nationwood is a 25-year-old man. with a White House security background, but that's not helping him with some legal trouble that

he's found himself in after his girlfriend died in their apartment in San Francisco, and police said Nation shot and killed her. Nation Wood is charged with involuntary manslaughter. The 22-year-old victim, Samantha M.G, recently graduated from San Francisco State University. On March 24th, it was just before 11 p.m., when Samantha was found suffering from a gunshot wound in their apartment. She died at the hospital. Now, according to sources cited by the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Standard, Wood told police he was dry firing his gun. That means pulling the trigger on what he thought was an unloaded weapon. But that gun was actually loaded.

And later, a firearms expert is going to join me to talk about dry firing, how it should be done. and Steve Wolf is going to show you and me how you're supposed to use a gun when dry firing. According to the sources cited by media outlets in San Francisco, the bullet went through a wall and struck Samantha M.G. who was in the bathroom. Wood's public defender called it, quote, a horrific accident. But here's the thing. Nation Wood worked in security. His LinkedIn page says he did advance work alongside the U.S. Secret Service. He was on the team from Vice President Kamala Harris during an event in San Francisco. So when someone with that background says they didn't know their gun was loaded, that they were just dry firing, that does raise some questions. Was this really an

accident? And how does a bullet fired from one room go through a wall and kill someone in another? We're going to ask a forensic death investigator, because when a bullet goes through a wall and kill someone in another room, the evidence will tell a story. And that story doesn't always match what the person pulling the trigger says happened. Those are the questions we're going to get into. But let's start with what we actually know. On Tuesday, March 24th, just before 11 p.m., San Francisco Police responded to a home on 22nd Avenue in the Sunset District. According to the San Francisco Police Department, officers arrived and found a woman who had been shot. They tried to save her. Paramedics took her to the hospital, but despite their best efforts,

she died. The victim, 22-year-old Samantha M.G, she was a 20-25 graduate of San Francisco State University where she studied interior design and architecture. She worked as a design assistant at an interior design firm in Presidio Heights, according to her LinkedIn page. Samantha's Instagram revealed she had a passion for travel, architecture, and design, and she often posted photos from her adventures, including a trip to Yosemite with Nationwood just last summer. Now the man charged in her death, 25-year-old Nation Wood, who's also a San Francisco state grad, and according to the San Francisco standard, a friend confirmed Wood and M.G were in a relationship. M.G's Instagram shows them together, including a post from 2025 captioned, quote, traveled, eight, built a table, and became a real

adult in 2025. So this is a couple, people who lived together. And on the night of March 24th, something happened inside that apartment. According to sources cited by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Standard, Wood told police he was handling his gun. He said he was dry firing. And as I mentioned earlier. That's the practice of pulling the trigger on what the user believes is an unloaded weapon, often used to practice trigger control or familiarize oneself with the firearm. But this gun, according to Wood's account to police, was not unloaded. A round was actually in the chamber, and when he pulled the trigger, the gun discharged. The bullet, according to those same sources, went through a wall, and on the other side of the wall was the bathroom, where Samantha Emerson,

was. The bullet hit her and she died. Now let's talk about what happened in the hours and days that followed. According to the San Francisco standard, a neighbor reported seeing a bleeding person on the sidewalk outside the Abraham Lincoln High School gate. Police have not confirmed that detail, but what is confirmed is that Wood stayed at the scene. His public defender, Doug Welch, stated in court, quote, from the moment this happened, Mr. Wood never moved anywhere away from doing anything other than trying to get M.G. help. When the police arrived, from the beginning until the end, he was 100% cooperative and open with them. That was on Friday, March 27th, when Wood appeared in court for his arraignment. According to Mission Local,

he kept his head low throughout the proceedings, burying his face in his hands at times. During that hearing, Wood's attorney, Doug Welch, asked the court to release him, arguing he was not a flight risk, saying, it does seem like a horrific accident. I think that Mr. Wood will do everything he can to do right. But the assistant district attorney, Alice Wong, raised a concern. She noted that before the shooting, Wood was scheduled to leave San Francisco to serve in the National Guard. She argued that made him a flight risk, and the judge agreed. He set bail at $300,000, and he laid out conditions. If Wood post bail, he must wear an ankle monitor, surrender his passport, forfeit any weapons, and submit to a search at any time.

His preliminary hearing is set for April 9th. Now, as for the charge itself, involuntary manslaughter, according to charging documents filed by the district attorney's office, Wood is accused of killing Samantha without malice. That's key. Involuntary manslaughter under California law typically means a killing that was unintentional but happened because of criminal negligence. The charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Wood pleaded not guilty to the charge. Now let's talk about who Nation Wood is, because his background here, it matters. According to his LinkedIn profile, Wood describes himself as, quote, an independent pre-event site security advisor. His profile says he provides, quote, external advisory site security assessment for events with VIP attendance. And it says he has experience with, quote, site walkthroughs and advanced coordination alongside U.S. Secret service for senior government and high net worth principles. A White House spokesperson confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that Wood was employed as part of the Biden administration. His LinkedIn shows he worked there from November 2023 to July 2025. And there's a photo on his profile that shows him smiling

with then Vice President Kamala Harris in front of a presidential jet. The caption reads, quote, very grateful to have had the opportunity to help the VP with her trip to APEC in San Francisco. So this is a man with security training, a man who worked alongside the Secret Service, a man by who his own account understands firearms, access control, and movement flow. And yet, according to his own statement to police, he pulled the trigger on a gun he did not know was loaded inside an apartment with his girlfriend in the next room. So now we come back to some of those questions. So now we come back to some of those questions. What exactly is dry firing and how does someone with this background, someone trained in security, make this mistake? Because the physical reality of what happened,

it raises questions of its own. A bullet fired from one room, going through a wall and striking someone in another room. What does a forensic death investigator look for when they respond to a scene like this? Because when police arrived, they didn't just find a woman with a gunshot wound. They found an apartment with a wall that had a bullet hole in it and a story that had to be tested against the evidence. So to discuss this incredibly tragic case, I want to bring in Joseph Scott Morgan. He is a forensic death investigator. Also, he is the host of the hit podcast Bodybags. So Joseph, you were the first person, one of the first people I thought of when I read about this case.

Nation would, apparently, according to sources, has told law enforcement that this was a horrific accident, that he was dry firing his gun, didn't realize it was loaded. This is according to sources, and shot his girlfriend through the wall while she was in the shower of their apartment. So how do you verify that that's in fact true? because it just confounds me that you would be dry firing, which is basically practicing firing an unloaded weapon in an apartment. Yeah, and it is very difficult to kind of piece all of this together from an investigative perspective. One of the things that you look for if you have a weapon that has been fired, and it actually goes through what we refer to as an intermediate target,

which in this case would be the wall, The projectile itself is not going to be in its normal state. You know, when you think about a round that passes through a surface, you know that there's going to be some deformity to it more than likely. And what's an added bit to this is the fact that not only did a round go through a wall and strike this young woman, but in addition to that, Ingenet, the round went through a wall that was apparently the shower and struck her. So now you've got a round that is passing through drywall, might strike a stud, for instance, that's in the wall, and then it's

going to have to pass through the other side, which can either be drywall backed and then pass through a shower shell. Everybody's familiar with the plastic shells that kind of insert, or maybe even some type of tile. This bullet, this projectile itself, would be so grossly deformed. And then when that round strikes the body, that entrance wound is not going to look like it does. Say, for instance, if you fire a pristine round into a subject where there is no what's referred to as an intermediate target. So from that perspective, the physical presentation of the entrance wound itself at autopsy is going to be quite striking. You will see it.

You'll see that the round is in fact deformed. Might be sitting in soft tissue, not even having struck a bone, and you'll see that there's something else here. So that's one of the ways that we're going to look at this. What's still so stunning to me is that you have somebody who apparently was some type of security staffer at the White House.

Now, it doesn't mean that you have, great common sense, but you should know how to properly handle a gun. And so the fact that you're even firing the weapon in the apartment, even if you're dry firing it, you're in an apartment. And so you didn't, I guess you didn't look at the gun to make sure, A, that it wasn't loaded. And B, you know, we're talking other things too, like trajectory. Why are you firing a gun in the direction of where your girlfriend is showering. So, so can trajectory, will that is the death investigator, will that mean anything in this investigation, doesn't mean anything to prove intent, accidental, you know, whether this is an accident or not, or is it meaningless in this

circumstance? Yeah, going back all these years, here's an old one for you. Think about the Blade Runner case. one of the things that you had there was an intermediate target where he he fired that weapon through a bathroom door i don't know if you recall that and trajectory was was all that was a big part of that case of course you know you had to factor in the idea of him wearing his prostheses but beyond that yeah so what is the relationship geometrically regarding the person the trigger puller relative to the victim them. Were they standing? Okay. Were they standing? Were they seated? Was he just like at an adjacent kitchen table and happened to be firing, happened to be firing at a wall like this? Or was he more in an erect position where he's firing down? And then you have to correlate that with where her entrance

wound is as well. Again, the intermediate target in this case can skew the doubt. The doubt regarding trajectory because even if you're firing on a straight line, all right, you've defeated part of the inertial energy of that round, but it still has sufficient amount of force to deliver a lethal, lethal blow on contact. So this is highly, highly complex case. I'm really kind of interested in the charges that they brought him up on at this point in time, Because I got to tell you, Ingenet, in my experience, anytime I hear someone say that something is an accidental shooting, okay, whether it be self-inflicted or someone else is harmed.

I'm going to really, really go over this case probably a bit more intensely than I will other cases. Because what you're saying, just the fact that he's using the verbiage dry firing implies that he has a familiarity with. weapons, right? Because that's not a term that everybody on the street uses. And there are dry firing exercises. There's all kinds of technology out there now where you never have to put around in a weapon to practice dry firing and you can simulate at home. It's just an odd set of circumstances. And they have made, I would imagine they have they have charged him prior to getting back any kind of data at this point as far as crime scene reconstruction goes because i can't imagine they would turn it around that quickly maybe they have but you know they've arrived the prosecution has

arrived at this conclusion he's still charged we'll see if anything else develops out of this as far as an upcharge on this case yeah right now it's involuntary manslaughter but the investigation is still ongoing and i know i would be shocked i would be shocked if they've got any real hard crime scene reconstruction data back, you know, you would think they would have brought the 3D thing in to-Fero system. Yeah, to the Fero system to scan the scene, you know, that they would be very thorough with this. And then maybe you never know. I mean, it can be involuntary manslaughter now. And the charges could always be upgraded. Now, I'm not implying more could be coming of this. Like, I'm not saying, yes, it's going to happen. But,

But I'm just saying, I think that there needs to be some very, as you said, thorough investigation here because the facts as we know them right now just sound really crazy. And there's a Samantha is dead. And her family deserves some answers. Joseph Scott Morgan, thank you so much. You're quite welcome, Ann Janette, anytime. So if you're anything like me, you're wondering how on earth somebody with a. security background and knowledge of guns may have been firing a gun to practice in their apartment with a gun that happened to be loaded. So I want to bring in firearms safety expert,

Steve Wolfe, to talk about this. Steve, you know, we've talked about firearm safety many times. I need to know, first of all, your first impressions of this case, because I'm just astounded that somebody who was a security staffer, an advanced security staffer for the White House, is in his apartment, which is like a smaller space. Like, you know, the number one rule of dry firing is be in a safe space, make sure the gun is not loaded.

And he's doing this in an area where he could be shooting at a wall or something where his girlfriend's on the other side. Like, I have to wonder what you are thinking about this. Well, generally a safe space with regard to dry firing or what I like to call clear dry firing, because clearing the gun is the first step of that, would simply be a space where other people can't see you so that if they look through your window, it doesn't look like you're shooting at somebody and have 911 respond. So any space could really qualify as long as it's a private space.

But, of course, this first issue is much more pressing is that the gun wasn't cleared. And the process of clearing a gun is really quite simple. And every time you pick up a gun, you either clear it or you verify that it's loaded because you're going to carry it or to use it. So I'd like to demonstrate for you, Jeanette, the process of how to safely clear a gun. And I'll show you that on two different types of guns, on revolvers and on semi-automatics. Does that work for you? Yeah, that works for me. I think this is very important because this is something anybody should be doing at any time.

Because also the number one rule of guns is like, you know, all guns are loaded, right? So you don't ever point a firearm at somebody ever, even if you think it's not loaded. All guns are always loaded. That's the first rule. So there's no excuse to think I didn't think it was loaded. Well, unless you checked it yourself personally, the gun is. loaded. That is simply its status. So let me demonstrate for you what the proper procedure for clearing a gun looks like. We're going to start with a very simple gun. This is a revolver.

When we pick up a gun, we pick it up by the frame, by the stock, by the grip, whatever people like to call it, but you pick it up by here, you don't put your finger on the trigger. And you keep the gun pointed in a safe direction where there are no people. for at least five layers of sheetrock out there, right? So the next thing is to open up the cylinder here, and when you open the cylinder, you hang the gun on your left hand, and you'll be able to see in here

that there is live ammo in there. So you would then take the gun and tip it up. The ammo will fall out, and then you activate the external. extractor rod here. Let's get a good focus there. Let's see. Okay, so the extractor rod, when you push that out, you can see that that would push out any remaining ammo, and then you visually inspect the cylinder, and you look through, and you should very clearly see nothing. You should see six empty cylinders, or five empty cylinders, depending on the type of gun. And at that point, the gut is clear

for so long as it is in your hands and under your control. Now, what about that ammo that we just dumped out? Well, a lot of people, when they go to the range, they practice loading their gun, as they should. So that means that you have a certain amount of muscle memory telling you that you should put ammo in the gun. It's just something you've practiced doing. So you take the ammo that you have taken out of the gun

and you move it to another location. put it on another table in another room. And that way, there's no likelihood that during your training, you're going to resort to this muscle memory that tells you to love the gun. So now you have both a cleared gun, nothing in here, and you have no ammunition in the room with you. You can now close the cylinder, and it would now be safe to press the trigger on this gun.

And you could practice what is called dry firing, which I will now always call clear dry firing because the first step is to clear the gun. And you can practice here. And dry firing is actually a very important part of becoming proficient with a firearm. In fact, you can become proficient with a firearm with maybe one out of seven of your training sessions being with live ammo and the other six being with dry firing. But every single time you do it, you have to clear the gun. Anzinet, you have a question?

I do have a question. I have a couple actually. even though that gun that revolver is clear would you say that dry firing a gun clear dry firing should you still be doing that in a space like an apartment i mean maybe that's where you live but that's still if if every gun is always loaded that's the number one rule of firearms should you still be doing that in an apartment it is safe to do it in an apartment if you have cleared the gun. So while, yes, the rule is all guns are always loaded,

this, if you have cleared a gun yourself, for as long as the gun remains in your hands and under your control, the gun is considered clear and relatively safe, right? No bullets can come out because there's no bullets in. Now, if I lay this gun down, what is this gun now? It's now a loaded gun because it's left my hands and has left my control. So when I pick the gun back up, every time you pick the gun up, we're going to clear it again.

We're going to verify that there's nothing in those cylinders. This is now, once again, a clear gun, and it's safe for clear dry fire practice. This does not mean that you point the gun at people. Absolutely not, because never point a gun in anything you don't want to destroy. So you have to know what is in front of your gun, but this gun won't fire any ammo because there's no ammo in it. No, go ahead. And I would think that even though you're in an apartment, you still don't want to point it in the direction of anything

where a person might be on the other side of the wall, which in an apartment would be very difficult unless you know, oh, I'm pointing it toward my bedroom and I know nobody's in there. Right, or I'm pointing it at a brick exterior wall. Right. So the other type of gun that is actually much more commonly carried is a semi-automatic pistol.

Once again, if I want to dry fire this or clear dry fire this in my home, I pick it up without touching the trigger and activate the magazine release here. So we'll push the magazine release in and that will release the magazine. Does that mean this gun is now clear? Absolutely not because there can still be around in the chamber, right, as there ought to be. So I will rack that slide back and catch that remaining round. And now, even though I've removed the ammo, what's the next step? Take the ammo. Put it across the room or in another room.

So there's no likelihood that you're going to pick that up and load it inadvertently because it's something that you've practiced doing many times. Okay, so now, even though we've removed the magazine, we've removed anything from the chamber, we have to do a visual inspection. So we look in here, we make sure that the magazine's not there, and then we look in here and we check the breach area here, looking into the chamber, and we could see that there's nothing there as well. You'd actually be able to look down this right now, and you'd see your little pinky wiggling in there. Let's see if I can line that up.

Probably not that dexterous. Okay, so... I could see a little. little bit of light shining through there. All right, yeah. And you can put a flashlight in there and you'll see the light coming through because there's nothing in there. So this gun is now a cleared firearm. For how long? Until it leaves your hands.

There you go. Until it leaves your hand and leaves your control. So I can close this now. This gun is a clear gun. I can now point it in a safe direction. I can put my finger on the trigger. I can dry fire it. A gun like this requires that it cycle each time.

each time, but I can get a good feel for this and I can practice acquiring a target and gently pressing the trigger in my hand without moving the sides. So I can do all the things that you have to do to be proficient with it. And then you can set the gun down and the gun is now what? It's loaded. That's a loaded gun, exactly. So every time I pick the gun up, I check, nothing here, nothing here, nothing here. Right. Now I can close this back up. It's a cleared gun, safe to dry fire. for clear dry firing. So that's really the very, very simple process for clearing a gun, for dry firing it, whether it's a revolver or an automatic. As we talked about earlier, you know, you said the semi-automatic is probably the more commonly carried gun. I highly doubt. We don't

know the gun. We don't know the model or the make or whatever of the gun that Nationwood was handling that day. But I think it's more likely he was handling a semi-automatic. And so maybe he took the magazine out and didn't clear the chamber. Maybe that's what this comes down to. Quite likely. Right. Is that he removed the magazine, but he forgot that there's still fuel in the engine block here. Right.

That you can remove the gas tank. If there's still a little bit of gas left in the engine, you can still run someone over, right? Same thing here, right? You can remove this. If you have a round in here, it's still going to go off. And unfortunately, with the semi-automatic, semi-automatic style, you're much more likely to discharge it and intentionally because you have a hundred percent chance that the round in the chamber will go off. Whereas with the revolver,

pick it up, do what? Pick it up, clear it, right? So with the revolver, if there was a round left in there, you know, you might have a one in six chance that it's going to go off, right? Because you have six cylinders. And with the hammer falls. on an empty cylinder, nothing happens. But in the semi-automatic, there's only one place for the ammo to be, and that's in the chamber. And so it's going to go off the first time. So he wasn't actually in the process of a dry firing exercise. It was his very first shot because the chamber was loaded there.

Why is dry firing even good at practicing? Because you're not getting, you know, you're not getting the kick, you know, that you're you would get if you were at the range and had a loaded weapon. You're saying it's good to do to practice. So why is that? Because I would think you'd want to practice at the range with a target and get that kickback. You would, but recoil isn't what puts rounds on target. Proper technique is what put rounds on target. And so you can develop proper technique through clear, dry-firing exercises that can be done at home. And then typically, you know, one out of seven practice sessions you do at the range to validate that what you're doing in your dry fire practice

is actually helping you get rounds on target. So getting rounds on target means, you know, proper footwork, proper hip position, proper torso position, proper shoulder position, proper arm position, proper grip, proper side alignment, and proper trigger control. Those are all things that you can become very proficient at without even owning ammunition. In fact, there have been entire police recruit classes that took place in the Middle East when there was no ammo available because the country was at war. And the graduates from those classes actually performed better when they finally got ammo than cadets who had practiced with live ammo every time because since they didn't experience recoil,

they didn't anticipate recoil. And anticipating recoil is one of the things that makes people go off target. So if I pick this gun up, what do I do? Clear it, right? Visually inspect. Make sure there's nothing in here. Now, if every time I fired this gun, it goes like this,

some people are going to develop a fear of that. So right before the gun goes off, they point the gun down because they're afraid of the recoil. If you haven't experienced recoil, you're going to find that you're able to manipulate the gun without moving it at all because you have no anticipation of recoil. And that anticipation is actually what causes people to miss. Very interesting. Well, we will keep an eye on this case because when I first heard about it, I first thought of you. You're one of the first people I thought about.

and I was actually pretty shocked that somebody was practicing this dry firing in an apartment, but now after talking to you, maybe I'm not so surprised anymore. Well, there's only four rules of gun safety and the reason for that is we want to keep it

simple and short so people can remember it, right? All guns are always loaded. Never allow a gun to point at anything you don't want to destroy. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and always be sure of your target and what's beyond it. So, when you hear about an accident like this, you know that somebody has broken at least one and possibly more of those rules.

But if you just remember all guns are always loaded and you must clear a gun before you handle it for any purpose other than discharging it, you'd be safe and you keep other people safe. No doubt. Steve Wolf, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Anginette. Nationwood is out on bail right now. He's wearing an ankle monitor and his preliminary hearing is set for April 9th. For now, Wood awaits his next court date, and Samantha M.G.'s family is left to grieve,

a beautiful 22-year-old woman who graduated just last year with her whole life ahead of her. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.