Former White House security guard charged in San Francisco girlfriend’s death
A 22-year-old San Francisco State graduate was shot while showering in the Sunset District home she shared with Nation Wood, who now faces involuntary manslaughter charges.
Nation Wood, 25, was back in court after being charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, 22-year-old Samantha Emge, inside their Sunset District home. Emge died after a bullet went through a wall and struck her while she was showering, according to Wood’s attorney, Paula Canny.
The shooting happened at about 10:43 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in San Francisco’s Sunset District. Emge was taken to the hospital, where she later died. Wood posted $300,000 bail and was placed on electronic monitoring before appearing in court on Wednesday, April 1, from a hospital mental health unit while under psychiatric evaluation.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the case was still very fresh and that the information available at that point suggested the death was not intentional. Wood later pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday.
The two had recently graduated from San Francisco State University in 2025 and had just moved in together. Emge worked as a design assistant at an interior design studio in San Francisco, a job that placed her in the city’s daily creative economy, from neighborhood firms to small business offices scattered across the west side.
Wood’s background had drawn added attention because he participated on a White House advance team while he was an undergraduate and had been planning to serve in the National Guard. That history has only sharpened public focus on a case that began in a shared apartment in the Sunset and moved quickly into the courts, where Wood’s mental health evaluation, bail status and criminal charge now sit alongside the unanswered questions that still surround the shooting.
Emge’s family has not publicly commented, and a relative said the family was not available to speak. The San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office continue to handle a case that has put a local neighborhood, a recent college graduation, and a young woman’s death at the center of a citywide reckoning.
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