A 26-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder after shooting a homeless man who allegedly asked her to move her Porsche because she was playing music in the car at 3am.
Gerard Melton, 54, was trying to sleep on the sidewalk in Nashville, Tennessee, when he “became disturbed” by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from Katie Quackenbush’s luxury SUV, Metropolitan Nashville Police said.
BREAKING: Katie Quackenbush, 26, charged tonight with attempted murder for shooting a homeless man near Music Row at 3 a.m. on August 26. pic.twitter.com/XP7BkAtuLn
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) September 12, 2017
A heated argument followed, which culminated in Quackenbush allegedly getting out of her vehicle and firing two shots at Melton before getting back into the Porsche and fleeing the scene.
Melton was critically wounded and remains hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Quackenbush’s father told the Tennessean that his daughter didn’t even know she hit Melton and was simply trying to fire warning shots.
“She didn’t try and kill this guy,” Jesse Quackenbush said. “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 said.
Quackenbush added that his daughter allegedly saw the homeless man harassing a woman in the street before he accosted her and her friend in the vehicle.
Bond for Quackenbush is set at $25,000 and she is scheduled to appear in court in early October.
