A woman in a white luxury SUV (Porsche) has been charged with attempted murder of a homeless man. The incident occurred on August 26, 2017.
The victim, 54-year old Gerald Melton, told police he was trying to sleep on the sidewalk when exhaust fumes and loud music emanating from a Porsche SUV disturbed him. He told the driver of the car, 26-year old Katie Quackenbush, to move the vehicle, which resulted in an argument and shouting match.
Mr. Melton alleges that as he walked back to where he had been sleeping, Ms. Quackenbush got out of her car and fired two gunshots, shooting him in the abdomen. She then got back into her car and drove away (a female friend of hers was also in the car). Ms. Quackenbush later returned to the scene of the crime. Mr. Melton was hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Ms. Quakenbush is a single mother [already a bad sign] with a 5-year old boy. Her father, Jesse Quakenbush, is a [sleazy] lawyer specializing in criminal defense, auto accidents, and medical malpractice. He was formerly a film and television writer, producer, and director.
He (Mr. Quakenbush) claims that his daughter shot Mr. Melton because “she felt threatened”. He claims his daughter is really the victim, and that Mr. Melton had banged on the car windows screaming profanities at her and her friend as they sat in the car, threatening to kill them unless they turned the music down.
Mr. Quackenbush also made the following claims:
-that his daughter hard warned Mr. Melton that she had a gun
-that his daughter “fired a warning shot” to scare Mr. Melton away
-that Mr. Melton kept coming after the warning shot, so she fired another “warning” shot
-that after the second shot, Mr. Melton kept coming, so she jumped in the car and drove away
Mr. Quakenbush also claims that his daughter had “closed her eyes” when she fired both shots, and that his daughter thought she had “pointed the gun away from him,” therefore “didn’t try to kill him” (and so hadn’t realized the man had been shot). He further stated that Mr. Melton “should’ve stayed laying down on the ground and stayed away from young women that night”.
[Wow; what a sleazeball. It’s also pretty obvious that her scumbag lawyer father has been coaching Ms. Quakenbush on what to say to the press and authorities. #FakeNews]
But that’s not all - he keeps going.
Mr. Quakenbush also claimed that both his daughter and her friend had contacted the district attorney’s office shortly after the encounter and agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation. However, Nashville Police stated that neither of the two women reported the incident to the police. Rather, it was another person who found the wounded victim (Mr. Melton), that had called the authorities.
[I just have to ask. Even if true, why would you call the district attorney instead of the police? Sounds fishy.]
The police department didn’t hear anything from Ms. Quakenbush until a week later (when her defense lawyer finally called the prosecutor’s office).
Ms. Quakenbush’s defense lawyer Peter Strianse, said his client acted the way she did because Mr. Melton “came out of nowhere” and banged “violently on the car window”, and appeared to be “deranged” or “on some sort of drug”, and seemed “completely unhinged”.
[again, these are clearly words from a lawyer and not from the spoiled rich girl shooter]
Ms. Quakenbush has had at least 2 other run-ins with the law. In December 2016, she was charged with misdemeanor assault after striking a woman on the head with a drinking glass (as of September 2017 the case was still pending).
About four years prior, she was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge after hitting another woman. The charge was later dropped
One businesswoman in the neighborhood where the incident took place says she never noticed Mr. Melton to be a violent person but that a couple of other people have said he has raised his voice or become angry on occasion.
Katie Quakenbush - singing the jailhouse blues?
This crazy woman (Quackenbush) is full of crap. I don’t believe she closed her eyes when she shot at Mr. Melton, and even if she did, I don’t believe she pointed the gun away from him before shooting. I also don’t believe Mr. Melton threatened to kill her and her friend (but even if he did, there was nothing preventing them from driving away). Instead, she got out of her car, started arguing with him, and then shot in his direction (both Quackenbush and Melton attested to this). If you actually “feared for your life” as both her father and her defense attorney claim, why would you get out of your car? And why would you argue with a supposedly “violent” person?
Quakenbush’s story does not add up at all. But that’s female privilege for you (with a luxury Porsche SUV to boot). If it had been a man, and if he had shot a homeless woman, this would have been a bigger story in the mainstream media.
#WomenSuck
#FeminismIsCancer
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Links and text of original articles below:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41247060
US & Canada
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Nashville Porsche driver shoots homeless man in row
12 September 2017
A Tennessee woman is charged with attempted murder after she shot a homeless man who asked her to move her Porsche, police have said.
Gerald Melton told police he was trying to sleep on the pavement in Nashville when loud music and exhaust fumes coming from the SUV disturbed him. Katie Quackenbush, 26, allegedly fired two shots as they argued near Music Row at 03:00 local time (08:00 GMT). Mr Melton, 54, suffered a critical abdominal wound and was in hospital. He told police the suspect got back into her luxury car and fled the scene.
He said he had asked the driver, whom he identified as Ms Quackenbush, to move the vehicle before the two began shouting at each other. Mr Melton said he then walked back to where he was sleeping when she got out of the car and opened fire.
Ms Quackenbush, a single mother to a five-year-old boy, was booked into jail on Monday.
Her father, Jesse Quackenbush, said his daughter opened fire because she felt threatened.
"She didn't try and kill this guy," Mr Quackenbush told the Tennessean on Monday night.
He told the newspaper Mr Melton made explicit remarks and threatened to kill his daughter and her friend while they sat in the car.
Mr Quackenbush said his daughter fired two "warning shots".
"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.
He said his daughter told him there was no indication the man had been shot.
The women then left and later returned to a crime scene, he said.
Ms Quackenbush is set to appear in court on 6 October.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/09/13/homeless-man-asked-woman-to-move-porsche-so-he-could-sleep-then-she-shot-him-police-say/?utm_term=.0408088280dc
Morning Mix
Homeless man asked woman to move Porsche so he could sleep. Then she shot him, police say.
by Samantha Schmidt | September 13, 2017
Around 3 a.m. one Saturday morning last month, Gerald Melton was trying to sleep — as he often did — on a sidewalk near Nashville’s Music Row, known as the heart of the city’s entertainment industry.
But the 54-year-old homeless man was “disturbed” by the smell of exhaust fumes and the sound of loud music emanating from a white Porsche SUV nearby, Nashville metro police said in a news release. He asked the driver to move the Porsche, prompting a shouting match between the two. At some point, Melton walked back to the area where he had been trying to sleep, he told police.
Then, the driver, a 26-year-old woman named Katie Quackenbush, allegedly stepped out of the Porsche and fired two gunshots at Melton, hitting him in the stomach, police said. She then got back in her SUV and fled the area.
On Monday, Quackenbush, an aspiring singer and songwriter, was charged with attempted murder in connection with the Aug. 26 shooting. She was booked into jail and released after posting a $25,000 bond. Melton was critically wounded and remains hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, police said.
The news of Quackenbush’s arrest stirred outrage on social media and from advocates of the homeless. It’s also not her first time arrested in connection to a violent incident. In December, Quackenbush was charged with misdemeanor assault after striking a woman in the head with a drinking glass, according to records cited by the Tennessean. The case is still pending.
Almost four years ago, she was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge after hitting another woman. The charge was later dropped.
Her father, Jesse Quackenbush, a well-known defense attorney in Amarillo, Tex., spoke out against the allegations and provided a very different account of how the Aug. 26 events unfolded. In a statement to WTVF, he said his daughter was “actually acting in self defense.”
Jesse Quackenbush said in the statement that his daughter had been in her vehicle with another woman when Melton began “verbally accosting them.”
“The man was always on his feet and not asleep” as police had said, the father contended.
He told NewsChannel 5 that the homeless man banged on the car windows, screaming profanities and threatening to kill them unless she turned the music down.
His daughter told him, “I have a gun. Stay away from me,” Jesse Quackenbush said.
Katie Quackenbush has been charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a homeless man in Nashville last month. (Metro Nashville Police Department via AP)
She then shot one “warning shot,” intended to scare him away, the father said in his written statement to WTVF. When he “kept coming,” she fired another shot.
After the second shot, “he still kept coming forward, she jumped in the driver side and sped away because she was afraid for her life,” Quackenbush told NewsChannel5.
“She’s a victim in this more so than Mr. Melton,” he said. “If anything he’s the one that should’ve stayed laying down on the ground and stayed away from young women that night.”
Speaking to the Tennessean, Quackenbush said his daughter “closed her eyes when she shot both times.” She said she did not know that the man was hit by the gunfire.
“She didn’t try and kill this guy,” Quackenbush told the Tennessean.
Katie Quackenbush’s defense attorney, Peter Strianse, told the newspaper, “She was dealing with somebody that came out of an extremely dark street in the early morning hours who comes out of nowhere and is banging violently on the car window.”
“Somebody who appears to be either deranged, somebody who may be on some sort of drug, who seems completely unhinged, and that’s why she reacted the way that she did,” he added.
Both Katie Quackenbush and the other woman in the Porsche contacted the district attorney’s office “shortly” after the encounter, and both “always agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation,” Jesse Quackenbush said in his written statement to WTVF.
However, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron told the Tennessean that neither Quackenbush nor the woman with her initially reported the incident to police. Another person who found Melton wounded called authorities for help. The police department didn’t hear anything from Quackenbush until her attorney reached out to the prosecutor’s office at the start of the following week.
“There’s no doubt that there was an argument and yelling between both parties,” Aaron said. But police have no information that Quackenbush was blocked or prevented from leaving in her car.
Jesse Quackenbush was formerly a film and television writer, director and producer, according to his website. He now specializes in litigating auto accidents, medical malpractice and criminal defense cases.
A quote at the top of his website reads: “My career-long goal has been to treat every client as though they were a member of my own family.”
Katie Quackenbush appears to have released a number of songs on YouTube and iTunes under the name Katie Layne. “Katie Layne Music” on YouTube describes her as an “American Blues, Rock and Roll vocalist.” In one music video, titled “Outlaw Love,” she is featured jumping a fence and running away from a law enforcement officer as he aims a gun at her. “I’m definitely a sinner, I’ve never been a saint,” she sings in one part of the song.
Lindsey Krinks, who works in homeless outreach and co-founded a nonprofit called Open Table Nashville, spoke about the allegations with NewsChannel 5. “There’s a big power imbalance between the players in this situation,” Krinks said. “There is an excessive use of force in violence with the gun, so anytime there is an excessive use of force, people who abuse their power need to be held accountable.”
Little is known about Gerald Melton. But according to local station WSMV, he is a skilled guitarist and singer.
Sharon Corbitt-House, who manages a number of big-name artists on Music Row, told the station that Melton used to live in the parking lot behind her building for about a year. “I had no clue that he was as talented as he was,” she said. Once hearing him perform, she launched a crowdfunding page to help Melton move into temporary housing. Not long after, though, he was back living on the streets of Music Row, she told WSMV.
She said while she never noticed him to be a volatile person, she had heard a couple of people describe times in which he raised his voice or become angry.
WSMV broadcast a video from December 2016 that captured Melton singing and playing guitar. He apparently also goes by the first name “Doug.” That video appears to still be available on YouTube. In it, the bald, white-bearded man is seen strumming an acoustic guitar and singing the song, “Does He Love You Enough.”
Samantha Schmidt is a reporter for The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She previously worked as a reporting fellow for the New York Times.
Follow @schmidtsam7
