Sept. 13 (UPI) — An aspiring singer in Nashville has been charged with attempted murder after police said she shot a homeless man who asked her to move her Porsche last month.
Katie Layne Quackenbush, 26, has been charged with the Aug. 26 attempted murder of Gerald Melton, 54, who is still in the hospital with critical injuries.
According to Nashville police, Melton was trying to sleep on the sidewalk at 3 a.m. that morning when he “became disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from a Porsche SUV” near the city’s popular Music Row. Melton then asked Quackenbush to move the car, but an argument ensued “with both parties yelling at each other.”
Melton said he went back to where he was sleeping on the sidewalk when Quackenbush got out of the Porsche with a gun in her hand and fired two shots – including one that hit Melton in the abdominal area. Quackenbush then got back into her Porsche and fled the scene, police said.
Police said Quackenbush never reported the incident. And according to the Tennessean, Quackenbush has had two prior assault charges. In October 2013, Quackenbush was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic violence-related assault charge that was dropped months later. In December, Quackenbush was charged with misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury after allegedly assaulting her ex-husband’s girlfriend. That charge is still pending.
Quackenbush’s father, Texas attorney Jesse Quackenbush, said his daughter only meant to fire “warning shots” in self-defense after Melton threatened her.
“She didn’t try and kill this guy,” Jesse Quackenbush told the paper. “She had no intention of killing him. She didn’t know that she hit him.”
“She did say she closed her eyes when she shot both times, but they were warnings, and she thought she pointed away from him,” he added.
