Daughter of local attorney Jesse Quackenbush charged with attempted murder in Tennessee

The daughter of a well-known Amarillo attorney has been charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a homeless man in Nashville, Tenn., last month, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Katie Layne Quackenbush, the 26-year-old daughter of Jesse Quackenbush, was charged Monday night in the Aug. 26 shooting of Gerald Melton, 54, near Music Row. Melton critically wounded and remained hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Tuesday.

Bond for Quackenbush is set at $25,000.

Police said Melton was disturbed by exhaust fumes and loud music coming from Katie Quackenbush’s Porsche SUV while trying to sleep on a sidewalk at 3 a.m. and asked her to move the vehicle. The two began yelling at each other, police said, and Quackenbush allegedly exited the vehicle armed and shot Melton twice. Melton told police that Quackenbush got back into the Porsche and left the scene, according to MNPD.

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.

“She didn’t try and kill this guy,” Jesse Quackenbush told the Tennessean on 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.”

Jesse told the newspaper that his daughter fired two “warning shots” and then left.

“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 said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.