Nashville Police(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A 23-year-old man is one of four people being sought for questioning by police in the fatal stabbings at a Nashville bar of two men, including the brother of San Francisco 49ers’ backup quarterback C.J. Beathard, authorities said.
Nashville police say they are eager to talk to Michael D. Mosley about the violent confrontation early Saturday at The Dogwood bar that claimed the lives of Beathard’s 22-year-old brother, Clayton Beathard, and Paul Trapeni III, 21, a student at Rhodes College in Memphis.
Investigators are asking for the public’s help in locating Mosley, who is “strongly believed to have definitive information about the murders,” police officials said in a statement.
Mosely is one of four people who were at the bar during the fatal fight that police are seeking to question. He is the only one police have identified.
“Mosley has been identified as being present both inside and outside of The Dogwood bar, including when the fight occurred,” according to the police statement.
Clayton Beathard and Trapeni were stabbed around 3 a.m. on Saturday during a fight that occurred outside the bar when they saw a woman being subjected to unwanted advances from a man and attempted to intervene, police said.
Both victims were rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where they died. A third man was also stabbed in the confrontation, but survived, police said.
No arrests have been made in the slayings.
“Clay was an amazing, big and soft-hearted human being with an undeniable love for the Lord,” Clayton Bethard’s parents, country music songwriter Casey Beathard and Susan Beathard, said in a statement to The Tennessean.
Clayton Beathard was a junior at New York’s Long Island University, where he was the starting quarterback this past season on the school’s football team.
“He had his family’s, friends’ and teammates’ backs even to a fault,” the parents said. “I wish he would have been more inclined to take the high road but he hated ‘wrong.'”
Following the 49ers thrilling last-minute victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday, head coach Kyle Shanahan told his players that C.J. Beathard had given him a message to relay to them.
“He could barely talk, but he said to me, last thing he said as he walked out the door is, ‘You guys go out and win this game,'” Shanahan said. “This game doesn’t mean anything compared to his brother, but you guys know C.J.”
The 49ers’ organization released a statement saying they were “shocked and deeply saddened” by Clayton Beathard’s death.
“We extend our heartfelt sympathies to C.J. and the entire Beathard family as they cope with the unthinkable loss of a loved one,” the team said.
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