Deadly Bar Fight Leads To 1 Arrest In St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A violent fight over a game of pool at St. Petersburg’s Stinger Bar on Sunday took a deadly turn when a third man entered the fray. According to authorities, a 62-year-old man died from injuries sustained in the fight while another man has been arrested on manslaughter charges.

According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, Vincent Hollingsworth, 62, was playing pool with another man around 11:52 p.m. April 9 at the 2222 48th St. S. bar. At some point, a fight between Hollingsworth and the man he was playing pool with broke out.

“Hollingsworth struck the man multiple times in the face with a cue ball,” a Monday afternoon email from the police department said.

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At that point, two bouncers stepped in and broke up the initial scuffle. Police say it was then that Mario Renard Stephens, 32, came up from behind Hollingsworth and struck him over the head with a beer bottle.

Hollingsworth stumbled back after the hit as the bouncers tried to hold Stephens back, the email said. Stephens, however, was able to get around the bouncers and then proceeded to hit Hollingsworth a few more times with the bottle and his fist, police said.

“Hollingsworth fell to the ground, striking his head on the pool table,” the email noted.

Hollingsworth was taken to a local hospital, but was pronounced dead at 12:33 a.m. April 10, the police department said.

Stephens left the bar in a vehicle, but was brought into custody a short time later. He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on a manslaughter charge early Monday morning. He was being held in lieu of $20,000 bond Monday afternoon, jail records indicate.

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Booking photo courtesy of the Pinellas County Jail