Suspect sought in stabbing outside St. Petersburg grocery store

ST. PETERSBURG -- Police this morning continue their search for a suspect in a stabbing outside a grocery store that left a local man hospitalized with a deep, liver-puncturing stab wound.

Stewart Crowe, 23, was found in the parking lot of the Sweetbay Supermarket on 34th Street and 22nd Avenue N about 9 p.m., police spokeswoman Midge Walsh said. Crowe and another man, identified by police as 21-year-old Hank Kuhn, had been arguing moments before the stabbing, police said.

"The victim received a deep laceration in the sternum area of his chest, and the stab wound caused serious liver trauma, and it just missed hitting his aorta," Walsh said.

Crowe was taken to Bayfront Medical Center. His condition was not immediately available.

Kuhn, of St. Petersburg, ran away after the stabbing and has not been caught, police said. Investigators are asking anyone who knows Kuhn's whereabouts to call the St. Petersburg police communications center at (727) 893-7880.

-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer