The daddy of the younger faculty grad fatally shot by her ex-Biden staffer beau inside their San Francisco residence described his daughter’s boyfriend as an indignant, abusive drunk and stated she repeatedly tried to go away him.
Nation Wooden, 25, was charged with involuntary manslaughter after what he known as the unintentional capturing of Samantha Emge, 22, a 2025 graduate of San Francisco State College, on the house they shared in town’s Sundown District.
Emge’s father, Invoice Phipps, painted a darkish image of the couple’s relationship in an unique interview with The Submit, questioning whether or not the capturing was unintentional.
“Their relationship was not good, and he was an abusive boyfriend. Samantha had been attempting to interrupt up with him for some time,” he stated. “She was unable to interrupt up with him, and she or he was trying ahead to him going away.”
Emge staged an intervention with Wooden and demanded he stop ingesting after he grew to become emotionally and bodily abusive, Phipps claimed. At one level, she moved out of a home the couple had shared with roommates as a result of they couldn’t tolerate his conduct, he added.
“All of her pals have been continuously attempting to inform her she ought to break up with him,” stated Phipps, a surgeon who lives in Florida.
Wooden had boasted on his LinkedIn profile that he was as a part-time safety staffer who labored with President Biden’s White Home Secret Service crew beginning in 2023. A photograph exhibits him smiling with former VP Kamala Harris in entrance of a presidential jet.
The well-connected San Francisco State grad was days away from becoming a member of the Nationwide Guard when he shot Emge and instructed police he did it by chance.
Emge had moved into Wooden’s residence simply days earlier than her dying as a result of it was bigger than her previous house and Wooden was meant to go away for primary coaching in lower than two weeks, her father instructed The Submit.
The aspiring designer was nonetheless unpacking her issues when Wooden fired his pistol via a wall into the lavatory the place Emge had simply emerged from the bathe at round 10:30 p.m. on March 24, authorities stated.
The bullet tore via a medication cupboard the place Emge was utilizing the mirror and struck her within the face.
A neighbor known as 911 as Wooden carried Emge’s physique from the residence out to the road. Officers found him along with his injured girlfriend on the sidewalk. Emge was taken to a hospital the place she died.
Wooden pleaded not responsible to involuntary manslaughter in San Francisco Superior Court docket on March 27.
He instructed police he was “dry-firing” his gun when it went off and claimed he didn’t comprehend it was loaded.
He was launched to a psychiatric hospital in San Francsico on $300,000 bail.
Wooden’s legal professional, Paula Canny, had searched for Wooden to be allowed to go to a clinic in Tucson for remedy, however on Wednesday dropped the request after Emge’s dad and mom protested.
Phipps stated Wooden ought to’ve recognized higher than to fireside a gun at his daughter even when he thought the weapon was unloaded.
Canny stated Wooden had been sober for 16 months on the time of the killing and has been suicidal because it occurred.
“Samantha instructed Nation’s household how a lot she beloved Nation and the way a lot she beloved being part of their household,” the lawyer stated. “Nation’s household is devastated by this tragedy and their hearts exit to Samantha’s household and family members.”
San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins stated in an announcement that the investigation into Emge’s killing remains to be energetic and her workplace might resolve to convey completely different costs towards Wooden.
“Because the investigation unfolds, if any new proof involves gentle, that’s admissible in courtroom and adequate to satisfy our burden of proof, we might search to file an amended grievance to mirror extra or completely different costs from what was initially charged,” Jenkins stated.
Like Phipps, Emge’s mom and pals additionally described Wooden as an aggressive and controlling associate throughout their two-and-a-half-year relationship.
Emge’s pals instructed the San Francisco Chronicle that Wooden would yell at her and make racist and homophobic feedback.
Wooden’s LinkedIn web page identifies him as an “unbiased pre-event web site safety advisor.”
He labored on the White Home via July 2025, ending out his time period underneath President Donald Trump, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile.
Nation was a political science and authorities main at SFSU, graduating in Might 2024.
He posed with Harris and her husband, former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, in entrance of a presidential jet in 2024, in a submit shared to his LinkedIn profile.
Emge labored in inside design, in keeping with her LinkedIn profile.
Her Instagram account exhibits her spending time with Wooden. One submit exhibits the couple smiling and sporting baseball caps.
“Travelled, ate, constructed a desk, and have become an actual grownup in 2025,” Emge captioned the submit.
The couple visited Yosemite in June, in keeping with Emge’s social media.
Prosecutors and police want to look at each shred of proof within the case earlier than figuring out his daughter’s killing was involuntary, Phipps stated.
“I feel possibly it wasn’t an accident,” he stated.
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