The young woman who was shot, police initially said accidentally, in a Sunset District apartment two weeks ago, was in a sometimes rocky relationship with the man who shot her. Her family says police need to investigate the case further.

25-year-old Nation Wood was days away from leaving town, heading for basic training to join the Army National Guard, when he was allegedly "dry-firing" a handgun aimed at a wall in his apartment. His on-again off-again girlfriend, 22-year-old Samantha Emge, had just moved her stuff into his apartment, which he was handing over to her to live in, rent-free, while he was gone. She was on the other side of that wall, taking a shower.

A single bullet, which Wood allegedly did not know was in the chamber or magazine, penetrated the wall and a medicine cabinet and struck Emge in the head.

San Francisco police almost immediately tried to cast the incident as an accidental death, which on the surface it would seem to be. And within days, Wood would be charged with involuntary manslaughter.

But as the Chronicle reports, Emge's family is raising alarms about Wood, and about the relationship the young couple had in the months leading up to the shooting, which should cast some doubt on the clear-cut accident narrative.

Emge and Wood reportedly met on the SF State campus in December 2023, and Emge's family said their relationship was marked by several breakups and reconciliations, and that some of their tensions stemmed from Wood's problematic drinking. Also, friends of Emge say that Wood was clearly a controlling presence, who would impose arbitrary "curfews" on his girlfriend, even though they did not live together, and would text and call frequently if she was out somewhere without him.

The couple had most recently broken up in December 2025, but had reconciled again — according to Emge's mother, "I think her heart just bled for him."

Emge's family tells the Chronicle she had seemed "calmer" in recent months, after Wood decided to join the National Guard, enlisting in January, and was planning to relocate to Missouri for basic training. While he'd be paying the rent on his apartment during his absence, he had offered it to Emge so she could save money, and he'd reportedly moved his things into storage so that she could redecorate.

Wood is being represented by high-powered defense attorney Paula Canny — who was the original defense lawyer for Nima Momeni in the Bob Lee stabbing case — which in itself could be an indicator of the complications involved in this case. According to Canny, in a court filing, Wood had been sober for 15 months, at least to his family's knowledge, at the time of the shooting. And, Canny said, the case did not involve domestic violence in any traditional sense.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins gave a statement to the Chronicle, regarding the family's concerns, saying, "My office will continue to do everything we can to support [Emge's family] and seek justice in the courthouse for them... If 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."

We likely won't learn much more about the case until it goes to trial, and we may never know what transpired in the apartment in the hours before the shooting took place. Wood has reportedly been checked into a psychiatric facility after alleged suicidal threats.

Previously: Suspect Says He Was 'Dry-Firing' Gun When 22-Year-Old Samantha Emge Was Killed