Michael Beatty, 42, a Black man from Knoxville, Tennessee, was found shot and dead inside an apartment at 406 Dry Gap Pike after deputies responded to what began as a welfare check on August 11, 2020. The scene quickly became a homicide investigation and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit took over; the body was sent to the Knox County Regional Forensic Center for autopsy. Sheriff Tom Spangler publicly identified Beatty the next day and confirmed the investigation was active and ongoing.

An obituary named him Micheal LaVada Beatty and listed family members including his mother Mary Beatty, father Bishop Dwight Frazier, and children JaLyn Beatty and Armani Beatty; it also noted he was preceded in death by a son, Jaquan Reece. Public statements at the time offered no named suspect, no motive, and no account of who may have been with Beatty when the shooting occurred. The sheriff’s office invited anyone with information to contact investigators and emphasized that a tip could be central to solving the case.

Did anyone in North Knox County hear or see anything the night of August 11, 2020, that could help investigators?