Battle over girl spurred HS stab

THE FIGHT that left a 10th-grader stabbed in the chest outside his Bronx high school was over a girl, sources said Tuesday.

The bloody attack happened outside Metropolitan High School on Rev. James A. Polite Ave. by Home St. in Foxhurst just before 2:40 p.m. Monday, police said. The 17-yearold victim confronted Alpha Doumbia, also 17, about a girlfriend they had in common, according to sources.

Doumbia confessed to cops that he knifed the teen with a blade that he claimed to have found on the street. The victim was stabbed twice in the ribs and slashed across his chest and his right hand.

Medics took the sophomore to Lincoln Medical Center in critical condition. He was rushed into surgery with air and blood leaking into the space between one lung and his chest wall, but his condition later stabilized, officials said.

Authorities charged Doumbia with assault. He was ordered held on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail. His lawyer and family maintain he was acting in self defense, and that he also suffered injuries.