A man who was demonstrating to his skeptical wife the safety of a handgun from his collection of 70 firearms fatally shot himself, authorities said Wednesday.

Police called the 9:25 p.m. shooting Tuesday accidental.

Robert Leroy Shovestull, 37, picked up a .45-caliber pistol and assured his wife it was unloaded while putting the gun to his chin, according to police.

The victim’s wife, 36-year-old Madelyn Jaspe Shovestull, told police she had complained about her husband’s arsenal Tuesday night. She said she was concerned about the safety of the couple’s 1-year-old child.


With his gun at his chin, Shovestull fired, mortally injuring himself, Glendale Police Sgt. Rick Young said. He was pronounced dead at County-USC General Hospital about an hour and a half later.

In the Shovestulls’ west Glendale house, police discovered more than 70 handguns, rifles, shotguns and assault rifles and survivalist literature, Young said.

Also seized were ammunition, powder, fuses, chemicals and other paraphernalia that led officers to call the sheriff’s bomb squad to the tree-lined street.

To help catalog the weapons and suspected explosives, police also summoned agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, the sergeant added.


According to his wife, Shovestull was studying osteopathic medicine.

Madelyn Shovestull told detectives she is a medical technician at a North Hollywood facility.