A Seal Beach man who threatened his mother with a five-foot samurai sword this week, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a series of felony charges, including assault with a deadly weapon.
Andrew Baoan Nguyen, a 21-year-old resident of Seal Beach’s College Park East neighborhood, faces four years if convicted of four felony counts, including assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and the felony enhancement of using a deadly weapon.
Nguyen was arrested Monday on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly threatened to kills his mom, who escaped and ran down the street to flag down a police officer.
After weighing the evidence, the Orange County District Attorney’s office decided to pursue the lesser assault charge rather than an attempted murder case.
“In this case, the defendant pulled out the samurai sword and told his mom, ‘I am going to kill you’ and, at some point, touched it to her, but he didn’t actually try to kill her,” said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for he Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Nguyen is scheduled to be back in court for a pretrial hearing next week. He remains in custody.
After his mom flagged down a police officer Monday, Nguyen was able to flee but was arrested just a few hours later when an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy spotted him driving at Seal Beach Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway.
