NEW BEDFORD — A New Bedford man will spend up to eight years in state prison after stabbing a romantic rival in the neck at the city's bus depot — and then assaulting another man hours later, with the first victim's dried blood still on his face and hands.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office said 37-year-old Talib Allah pleaded guilty on Tuesday to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and assault and battery.

Allah was at the downtown bus depot on Pleasant Street across from the Pic-A-Deli store on Sept. 7, 2021 when he attacked the first victim.

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The D.A.'s office said he saw a man who had previously dated the same woman as Allah.

He screamed "I'll kill you!" and charged at the other man, starting a fist fight that ended when he pulled a knife and stabbed the victim in the neck before fleeing.

After he was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital for emergency surgery, the victim received 19 staples to close his neck wound, the D.A.'s office stated.

New Bedford Police responded to a reported assault in another part of the city a few hours after the stabbing.

According to the D.A.'s office, Allah started an argument with a second man over an alcoholic drink and then assaulted him.

When officers found Allah, he had dried blood around his face and hands that was swabbed as evidence and later confirmed to belong to the stabbing victim.

Allah was on probation out of Hampden County after serving time in prison for armed assault and home invasion at the time of the New Bedford assaults.

He gave police a false name — Charles Pullman — when he was arrested, prosecutors said.

On Tuesday he was given a six to eight year prison sentence.

"The defendant stabbed the victim in the neck during a violent confrontation in a public place and could have killed him," Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn said.

"At the time of this incident, the defendant was on probation for another violent incident in which he served a prison sentence," Quinn added.

"He needs to be kept off the street to protect the public from his propensity for violence."

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