Local News in Brief : Victim Calls Shooting an Accident; Man Freed

A Van Nuys Municipal Court judge Tuesday dropped charges against a man accused of shooting his girlfriend in the head after the woman testified in court that the gun went off accidentally.

Em Ngoc Nguyen, 28, was charged June 28 with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in the June 24 shooting of Mai Nguyen at the Canoga Park apartment they shared.

But after Mai Nguyen’s testimony at a brief preliminary hearing, Judge Aviva K. Bobb released Em Nguyen from custody, ruling there was insufficient evidence to hold him for trial.

After the shooting, Mai Nguyen had told Los Angeles police that Em Nguyen had shot her once in the head with a .22-caliber pistol after an argument.

Em Nguyen then put the gun to his head but was stopped from pulling the trigger by Mai Nguyen’s two sons, Kha, 11 and Vu, 12, Mai Nguyen and her sons told police.

But Mai Nguyen, who underwent surgery for a bullet lodged in her ear and neck and has since recovered from her wounds, testified Tuesday in court that the shooting was an accident.

“I did not tell the police officer the truth,” she said, speaking through a Vietnamese translator. She said she lied to police “because I was mad” at Em Nguyen.