Spouse thought gun was empty

"I want to kill myself," Kristine Freshman said in the middle of an argument Sunday afternoon, husband Walter Freshman told police. "I want you to shoot me."

That is when Walter Freshman picked up his .22-caliber pistol -- which he thought to be unloaded -- placed it to the back of his wife's head and pulled the trigger, according to his statements to police detailed in an arrest report.

He had removed the magazine but had not realized there was a round in the chamber, he said in the report.

"I can't believe I killed her, I can't believe I shot her," Walter Freshman yelled, the report said, as officers arrived at his Laughlin home at 1818 Oasis Court, minutes after he called 911.

Emergency personnel found the body of Kristine Freshman, 57, on the floor of the bedroom with a gunshot wound to her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Walter Freshman, 50, was arrested and booked on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.

He told police he never intended to kill his wife.

He said he put the weapon in front of her after she said she wanted to kill herself and only picked it up after she asked him to shoot her instead.

He wanted to show his wife "how close to death she was," the arrest report said.

The incident was not the first time Walter Freshman used the tactic on his wife, the report said.

Four years ago, he pointed an unloaded shotgun at his wife during a similar argument and pulled the trigger.

The shotgun "only clicked," and that "had shut her up," Walter Freshman told police.

According to Clark County School District officials, Kristine Freshman was a teacher at Bennett Elementary School in Laughlin.

A spokesman for the district said no memorial is planned as of yet. A substitute teacher is filling the vacancy, and a long-term substitute will be appointed in January.

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.