Woman charged with attempted killing of homeless man has previous arrest record

The Tennessean

A 26-year-old Nashville woman charged this week for the attempted killing of a homeless man was firing "warning shots" in self-defense, her father says.

Katie Layne Quackenbush, 26, of 45th Avenue North, was charged Monday night with attempted murder for the Aug. 26 shooting of 54-year-old Gerald Melton, who remains hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries.

She was released from jail after posting a $25,000 bond.

Quackenbush, an aspiring singer and songwriter who previously lived in Amarillo, Texas, has twice been accused of assaulting other women. One charge was dropped and the other is still pending in Texas.

In Nashville, an attempted murder charge

Metro police detectives say that Melton was “trying to sleep on the sidewalk” around 3 a.m. near 901 19th Ave. South near Music Row when he “became disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from a Porsche SUV.”

Melton asked Quackenbush, the driver of the Porsche, to move the vehicle, according to police. The two then began yelling at each other.

Police say that after Melton walked back to where he had been trying to sleep, Quackenbush got out of her vehicle with a gun and the argument continued. She fired two shots at Melton, who was wounded in the abdomen.

Melton reported that the shooter got back into the Porsche and left the scene.

Father of suspect: Homeless man threatened daughter

Jesse Quackenbush, Katie Quackenbush’s father and an attorney in Amarillo, tells the story of the shooting differently.

He said his daughter and her friend were being accosted by Melton, whom he alleged approached the Porsche as the women sat inside, threatening to kill them and making explicit and sexist remarks at Quackenbush.

“She didn’t try and kill this guy,” Jesse Quackenbush said Monday night, a few hours after his daughter was arrested on the charge. “She had no intention of killing him. She didn’t know that she hit him.”

Katie Quackenbush had driven a friend back to her car when the women reportedly saw Melton harassing other women in the street nearby, Jesse said. Melton then approached Quackenbush and her friend in the vehicle, he said.

“He comes up to their window and starts screaming in their window various threats, and something about turning their music down and that he couldn’t sleep,” Jesse said.

After the man walked away, Katie Quackenbush got out of her car to escort her friend to a vehicle parked close by. She grabbed her gun and put a magazine inside.

Melton began walking toward her again, Jesse said, at which time his daughter told Melton she had a gun.

She fired two “warning shots” and then left, because Melton continued to approach the women, according to her father.

“She did say she closed her eyes when she shot both times, but they were warnings, and she thought she pointed away from him,” Jesse Quackenbush recalled. When asked whether his daughter heard Melton scream or indicate he had been shot, the father said there was no indication he was injured.

Police: Quackenbush never reported run-in, shots fired at Melton

Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said neither Quackenbush nor the woman riding in her car initially reported the incident to police.

Rather, a third party who located Melton with gunshot wounds called for help.

The police department wouldn't hear anything from Quackenbush until after her attorney, Peter Strianse, contacted the district attorney's office at the start of the following week, Strianse confirmed. The prosecutor's office then relayed information to police about Quackenbush's potential involvement in the shooting.

She was interviewed by detectives at the Midtown Hills Precinct on Sept. 6.

As to whether the unarmed Melton had threatened to kill Quackenbush, as her father and attorney allege, Aaron said detectives are unsure what exactly was said, but don't believe Melton had kept Quackenbush from being able to leave in her car.

"There's no doubt that there was an argument and yelling between both parties," Aaron said. "The police department has no information that the SUV was being blocked or in any way being prevented from leaving that immediate area."

Attorney: Quakenbush was in 'imminent peril'

From his office Tuesday, Strianse spoke about the encounter Aug. 26, alleging that his client wasn't the only one who had a threatening run-in with Melton in the area.

Strianse said that after local attorney Brian Manookian read about the case Monday night, he contacted Jesse Quackenbush about having installed cameras around his nearby office because Melton had accosted employees "in this same menacing and threatening way" for roughly a year.

Strianse said Manookian also claimed he has surveillance footage of the Aug. 26 incident, though Strianse hasn't seen the video.

Aaron said he wasn't aware of a video of the encounter.

Manookian didn't immediately return a phone call from USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee for comment.

Strianse says Melton's behavior toward Quackenbush and her friend warranted her firing the shots, despite Melton apparently being unarmed.

"I think she felt threatened, because she was threatened," Strianse said. "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."

Suspect charged with assaults in Texas

In December, Katie Quackenbush was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury in Potter County, Texas.

A complaint filed by the state accuses Quackenbush of striking another woman in the head with a drinking glass.

Jesse Quackenbush said Tuesday that his daughter was charged after "throwing a glass of water" in the face of her ex-husband's girlfriend while at a restaurant "because of some insulting remarks:"

Prior to that arrest, the Amarillo Police Department arrested Quackenbush in October 2013 on a misdemeanor domestic violence-related assault charge.

Court records in Randall County records show that Quackenbush was charged after hitting another woman and was held under a $10,000 bond. The case was dismissed in April 2014 after the victim requested the charge be dropped, and she was ordered to pay a $400 attorney fee.

Both Jesse Quackenbush and Strianse said Tuesday that the complainant in the case was Katie Quackenbush's mother.

When asked about Quackenbush's previous arrests, Strianse said he didn't believe he was a violent person.

"I think that's really overblown," he said.

In the Nashville case, Strianse said he believes possible video footage would help prove his client was justified.

"In a perfect world, perhaps the police department would interview Mr. Manookian and hear his story, look at his video and get the other side of this story and credit the fact that Katie was acting in self defense and in defense of her friend," he said.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison. Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.