Alleged Nashville shooting brings social relations into relief
By
Warren Duzak
19 September 2017
The alleged shooting of a homeless man by an apparently well-off young woman in Nashville, Tennessee last month might serve as a metaphor for the growing class inequality in a city that has become one of the most unequal in the nation.
Gerald Melton, 54, was shot once in the stomach August 26 after he allegedly objected to the sound of loud music and exhaust fumes coming from a Porsche driven by Katie Quackenbush, 26.
Melton was sleeping outside in the Music Row area near downtown Nashville when Quackenbush, an “aspiring” singer/songwriter, pulled her car in at 3 a.m. near where the homeless man was sleeping.
An encounter led to disputed verbal exchanges before Quackenbush (a.k.a. Katie Layne) pulled a gun and fired twice before driving away without calling for help or reporting the shooting, Nashville police said.
She would only turn herself in much later.
Quackenbush is the daughter of a prominent Amarillo, Texas attorney who defended his daughter after she was charged with attempted murder and released on $25,000 bond.
“She didn’t try and kill this guy,” Jesse Quackenbush said. “She had no intention of killing him. She didn’t know that she hit him.,” the Tennessean newspaper reported. People cited this crude and reactionary comment by the attorney: “I know there has been a problem in Nashville, so I’ve read, with the homeless attacking, raping and killing people. There has also been a problem with local citizens killing homeless people. So, my daughter is ending up as a poster child for all these pre-existing problems with the homeless.”
Melton, also known as a talented musician but a loner, remains in Vanderbilt University Medical Center in stable…