FALL RIVER, Mass. —

William Flanagan, the former mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts, is speaking out for the first time about coming "face to face with death."

Flanagan was stabbed several times on Oct. 20. He was found on Hartwell Street near the Cosmopolitan Dispensary, which is a marijuana dispensary he owns.

Surveillance video showed the moment the suspect ran up to Flanagan from behind, before making striking motions toward his head and neck. Flanagan stumbled toward a nearby housing complex, where he later received aid from responding EMTs.

"A man, lost in psychosis, stabbed me multiple times — in my face, in my body, and in my neck. I can still feel the weight of those moments. The sound. The fear. The realization that I might never see my family again," Flanagan wrote in a sta

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