Katie Layne Quackenbush, a 26-year-old Tenessee woman, was charged on Monday, September 11, with attempted murder after she fired at a homeless man in August.
Quackenbush, 26, has been charged with attempted murder for the August 26 shooting of 54-year-old homeless Gerald Melton. Melton remains hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries.
According to Metro police detectives, Melton, 54, was attempting to sleep on the sidewalk around 3 AM when he “became disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from Quackenbush’s Porsche SUV.
Melton then asked Quackenbush to move the vehicle which sparked an argument between the two. According to the Tennesseean, police say that after Melton walked back to where he had been trying to sleep, Quackenbush got out the Porsche with a gun, firing two shots at Melton.
Melton was wounded in the abdomen and taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he remains. Quackenbush was arrested and was held on $25,000 bail. She was booked around 6 PM on September 11 and was released by 10 PM.
via Nashville.gov:
Midtown Hills Precinct detectives tonight charged Katie Quackenbush, 26, with attempted murder for the August 26th shooting of a homeless man outside 901 19th Avenue South near Music Row.
The victim, Gerald Melton, 54, was critically wounded and remains hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The investigation, which is being led by Detective Anthony Chandler, shows that Melton was trying to sleep on the sidewalk at 3 a.m. when he became disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from a Porsche SUV. Melton said he asked the driver of the Porsche, alleged to have been Quackenbush, to move the vehicle.
An argument ensued, with both parties yelling at each other. Melton said he walked back to where he was attempting to sleep. Quackenbush is alleged to have gotten out of the Porsche armed and, as the argument continued, fired two shots at Melton. He suffered a critical abdominal wound. He said the shooter got back into the Porsche and fled.
Quackenbush is also a musician, performing under the name Katie Layne. Her Twitter and Instagram accounts have been deleted.
This is not Quackenbush’s first run-in with the law. While she has no previous criminal convictions on her record, she was arrested in 2013 on an assault charge in Amarillo, Texas. She was arrested by the Amarillo Police Department on a misdemeanor domestic violence-related assault charge and was booked into Randall County Jail, where she was later released on a $5,000 bond.
