BLOOMINGTON - Police are interviewing potential witnesses Monday morning to a fatal stabbing of a Bloomington man outside a downtown tavern Saturday night.

"We are still talking to people, looking at video and still trying to sort out what happened," said Bloomington police spokesman Duane Moss.

Joshua Embry

Joshua C. Embry was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 12:26 a.m. Sunday. Police said the victim was found with stab wounds to his chest.

The initial call to police at 11:35 p.m. indicated that 30 people were involved in a fight at the bar at 525 N. Center St., said Moss. Other estimates have ranged from a dozen to 50 people, he said.

Embry is the sixth homicide victim in Twin Cities this year.

Embry had been in the bar prior to the stabbing, said Moss. The reason behind the altercation remains under investigation, he said.

The case remains under investigation by McLean County Coroner Beth Kimmerling's office and Bloomington police.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

At least five other homicides have occurred in Bloomington-Normal in 2008. Those victims were:

- Brothers Calvin Walls, 42, and David Walls, 40, who were shot to death Feb. 13 in Bloomington.

- Janae Towns, 22, of Frankfort, who was stabbed in the chest in Bloomington and died April 3.

- Angel Neal, 34, who was stabbed to death Aug. 28 in her apartment in Normal.

- Fifteen-month-old toddler, Antwan Liddell, who died of head injuries May 27. His father, George Autman, 21, of Bloomington, is charged in the death. Autman, who is jailed in lieu of posting $100,000, is due in court Nov. 24. The death was ruled a homicide by a Peoria County coroner's jury Aug. 14.

The Bloomington Police Department's 2007 annual report, posted on its Web site, said three murders occurred in the city in 2007, one in 2006 and three in 2005. Figures for Normal weren't immediately available.