Sheriff says gunman fired more than 800 rounds in shooting that killed Canton-area deputy

Deputy Ahmed “Adam” Al-Sherifi’s widow and mother attended Friday’s briefing surrounded by fellow deputies. Al-Sherifi was a husband and father of two children, including a newborn. As Van Zandt County Sheriff Kevin Bridger described the shooting that killed him, the family faced a loss no account of the gunfire could make easier. ^{1 3}

The October 23 briefing supplied two substantial developments in the account of Tuesday night’s warrant-service shooting south of Canton, Texas: Bridger identified the gunman as 42-year-old Mi Van Nguyen and said he fired more than 800 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle. Canton police Officer Chris Watson, wounded in the same encounter, was reported stable and recovering after surgery. ^{1 2 4}

The ammunition figure is the sheriff’s account, not an independently verified ballistic total. The available reporting does not explain how the rounds were counted. It describes the scale of the firing officers faced, but does not settle the path of any particular bullet or how Nguyen received the gunshot wound from which he died. ¹

When HeyDay News reported this shooting on October 21, we said a deputy had been killed, a Canton officer wounded and the suspect found dead inside the home. Our broadcast left all three unnamed and the hospitalized officer’s condition unknown. Subsequent reporting supplies their identities and a stable postoperative condition for Watson; Friday’s briefing adds the sheriff’s account of the volume of gunfire.

Deputies were assisting Canton police in attempting to serve two felony arrest warrants at Nguyen’s home in the 4300 block of State Highway 198, just south of Canton in Van Zandt County. The later account describes the allegations as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault on a peace officer. Deputy Brandon Fontenot was also among the personnel involved in the warrant-service attempt. ^{2 6}

The warrants explain why officers went to the house. They are allegations supporting an arrest attempt, not convictions, and they do not establish why Nguyen opened fire.

Bridger’s account, reported by CBS Texas, places officers’ arrival at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, October 20, with firing beginning roughly 20 minutes later. Nguyen opened fire from inside the residence toward officers outside, and officers returned fire, according to the incident accounts. Al-Sherifi and Watson were both struck. Al-Sherifi died. ^{1 7}

Those times should be treated as approximate, not as a settled minute-by-minute reconstruction. Other reporting places warrant-service activity around 10:22 p.m. The accounts do not establish a single precise arrival-to-first-shot sequence, and none of those encounter times is an established time of either death. ^{1 2 7}

Bridger credited another officer with helping provide lifesaving assistance while the gunfire continued. “He stayed focused and protected everyone,” the sheriff said. The available evidence does not firmly identify that officer; Fontenot’s presence alone is not enough to attribute those actions to him. ^{1 2}

Watson was shot in the right arm and flown to Plano for surgery. Those details, along with a stable condition, were already reported by CBS19 on October 21. Friday’s account describes a continuing recovery, not a newly disclosed injury or a new medical turning point. No longer-term prognosis, discharge date or return-to-duty date is established. ^{7 2}

Al-Sherifi’s brother had earlier identified him as Adam Sherifi, according to CBS19, before the sheriff’s office formally named him. Later coverage gives his fuller name as Ahmed “Adam” Al-Sherifi. The reports reflect an earlier family identification followed by official naming, rather than conflicting accounts of who died. ^{7 3}

At Friday’s briefing, Bridger addressed the grief shared by the deputy’s relatives and colleagues. ¹

The sheriff also condemned the attack, saying, “This kind of evil has no place in our communities.” That is his judgment of the violence. It is not an investigative explanation of Nguyen’s motives, which the available account does not establish. ¹

After the firing ended, Nguyen was found dead inside the home from a gunshot wound. Officials have not confirmed whether that wound was self-inflicted or caused by law-enforcement gunfire. His discovery after an exchange of shots does not, by itself, establish that officers killed him. ¹

The Texas Rangers are investigating, with the sheriff’s office cooperating. The later reporting clarifies the two warrants officers sought to serve, answering part of what remained uncertain in our October 21 account. It does not supply a Rangers conclusion about Nguyen’s fatal wound, precise times of either death or the name of the hospital that treated Watson. ^{2 7 58}

The briefing therefore makes the public account more specific without making it complete. A deputy’s family is grieving, a wounded officer is recovering, and the sheriff has described an extraordinary volume of gunfire. The remaining task is to establish what the evidence shows about that exchange—especially the source of Nguyen’s fatal wound. No dated release of investigative findings or further briefing has been established. ^{1 2}