Man gets life for fatally shooting wife, wounding teenage daughter

A 44-year-old Calgary man has pleaded guilty to killing his wife and shooting his teenage daughter in the face in front of his two other children. (Photo: Rod Waddington/ Flickr)

CALGARY –A 44-year-old Calgary man has pleaded guilty to killing his wife and shooting his teenage daughter in the face in front of his two other children.

Hien Tuan Lam pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder and discharging a firearm with intent to danger life.

Court was told Lam and his wife, Hue Ngoc Nguyen, 41, got into a late-night argument last May.

He got a pistol and went into the bedroom where Nguyen and their three children were cowering, shooting his wife once in the head and the chest before turning the gun on his daughter.

After the shooting, Lam fled the home with his youngest child, a three-year-old, while the teenager pretended to have died as a result of the gunshot wound.

Lam was originally charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder but agreed to a guilty plea on the lesser charges.

He was sentenced to life with no parole for 12 years.

Crown prosecutor Shane Parker said the memories of that night will haunt the children until the day they die, adding the guilty plea is a sign of remorse from Lam.

“This is one of the saddest cases I’ve ever come across in my time as a judge and lawyer,” said Justice David Gates. “In a single moment, (the children) lost both parents.”