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Katie Quackenbush: Witness To Woman’s Shooting Of Homeless Man Contradicts Her Self-Defense Claims

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 11:30 PST, Sep 19, 2017

Katie Quackenbush, a 26-year-old country singer and — it has recently been revealed — aspiring reality TV star, faces an attempted murder charge in the shooting of homeless musician Gerald Melton, 54, near Nashville’s famed Music Row in August. Since her arrest on September 11, Quackenbush and her father, a Texas lawyer, have claimed that she merely fired “warning shots” at Melton in self-defense, according to a Tennessean newspaper report.

But late last week, a witness to the shooting who called the police and says he held Melton in his arms until help arrived came forward to contradict the self-defense story put forward by the Quackenbush family, according to reporter Brandon Marshall of WTVF TV News in Nashville, who interviewed the witness on camera.

Also this week, new information about the background of the alleged shooter who has two previous arrests on misdemeanor violence charges in her history — though no convictions — has emerged, casting light on the background of the single mom of a 5-year-old who, police say, shot Melton twice after he asked her to move her $60,000 Porsche SUV because exhaust fumes and loud music were preventing him from sleeping on the sidewalk at about 3 a.m. August 26.

Quackenbush waited a full week before reporting to authorities that she had shot Melton, according to a Tennessean report. After twice shooting the homeless musician, Quackenbush reportedly climbed back into her SUV with a friend and drove to a nearby restaurant.

Witness Phillip Garton, a security guard who was working an overnight shift, says that he witnessed the shooting and that he was the one who called 911 — something Quackenbush did not do.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE BY THE INQUISITR:
Katie Layne Quackenbush: Country Singer Who Shot Homeless Man In Nashville Has $2.5M Trust Fund, Report Says
Katie Quackenbush: Homeless Man Asks Woman To Move Her Porsche SUV, She Shoots Him Twice And Drives Away

“When I think about it I almost cry, every time. It bothers me that bad,” Garton told the WTVF reporter. “I can still hear his voice holler and say, ‘Help me, call 911.'”

Watch the full WTVF report and interview with the new witness, who says that he recently visited the wounded Melton in a hospital where the homeless man is still struggling to recover, in the video below.

Though Quackenbush’s father has claimed that Katie Quackenbush was not even aware that Melton had been hit by her “warning shots” when she drove away from the scene, Garton told WTVF that the shooting appeared deliberate.

“In my opinion, that was no warning shots. His daughter was there, I was there, the gentleman that got shot was there,” the witness said.

Last week, a Denver, Colorado man who says that he is a former fiancé of Katie Quackenbush — who uses the stage name “Katie Layne” in her country music recording career — posted a video on YouTube in which he said that Quackenbush is wealthy and even has a $2.5 million trust fund. At the same time, reporting by the EastNashville.news site linked Quackenbush to advertisements on an adult website for an $800 “escort” calling herself “Presley Brooks.”

Also last week, EastNashville.news uncovered a promotional video for a never-produced reality TV show which appears to star Katie Quackenbush. The show, which was produced for but never aired by the country music cable TV network CMT, was entitled Southern Fried Bride and appears to follow the formula of The Bachelor, with a number of women competing for the attention of a single man — but in a southern, country-tinged setting.

Watch Katie Quackenbush in the promotional video for the Southern Fried Bride pilot episode in the video below. Be warned, the video contains some brief profanity.

Katie Quackenbush was released on $25,000 bond and is scheduled to make her first court appearance in the attempted murder case next month.

[Featured Image By Nashville Metro Police/AP Images]

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