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UTAH COUNTY -- Police are searching for two suspects in a stabbing in Utah County. Officers thought it happened in the parking lot of an American Fork Wal-Mart, but police say the victim now is changing his story.
Lehi police tell KSL the victim now claims the stabbing actually happened at a nearby motel.
Police say the victim originally told them that he, his friend, and two other men got into an argument just before 10 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store at 949 W. Grassland Drive in American Fork. The victim says the verbal exchange became heated, and then one of the men took out a knife with a three to four inch blade.
Sgt. Corbin Bateman of the American Fork Police Department said, "The verbal exchange went back and forth until one of the men stabbed the other male and the suspects fled."
Police say the victim claimed after he was stabbed in the abdomen, he then was taken to the nearby Motel 6 where someone called 911. He had said the suspects took off on foot from the Wal-Mart, prompting authorities from several agencies to search the marshland behind the store. They did not locate the suspects.
Police say they reviewed Wal-Mart's surveillance video of the parking lot, hoping that would provide more information on what happened. But they say the argument can't be seen on the tape. That leads them to believe the victim is now telling the truth, and that it actually happened at the Motel 6.
The victim was taken to American Fork hospital, but his injuries don't appear to be life-threatening.
E-mail: spark@ksl.com
