Woman charged with shooting homeless man who asked her to move her Porsche, police say
Photo: Metro Nashville Police
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WJBK) - A woman has been charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a homeless man in Nashville last month.
The Metro Nashville Police Department says the shooting stemmed from an argument after the man asked the suspect to move her Porsche. The victim, Gerald Melton, 54, was critically wounded in the shooting and is still hospitalized weeks later.
Police say Melton was trying to sleep on the sidewalk at 3 a.m. on August 26 when he became disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from a Porsche SUV.
Melton told police he asked the driver of the Porsche to move the vehicle. He and the woman started yelling at each other.
Melton said he walked back to where he was trying to sleep, and that the woman got out of the Porsche with a gun and fired two shots at him. He suffered a critical abdominal wound.
He told police the shooter got back in the Porsche and drove off.
Police have identified the suspected shooter as 26-year-old Katie Quackenbush. She's been charged with attempted murder.
Bond was set for Quackenbush at $25,000.
Quackenbush's father Jesse Quackenbush disputed the police account, saying his daughter fired the shots in self-defense as a warning, and didn't know Melton was hit.
The shooting happened in Nashville, Tenn. outside 901 19th Avenue South near Music Row.
The Associated Press contributed to this report