"His eyes were open. I gave him a kiss," girlfriend Francis Hernandez told the New York Daily News. "I told him to come back, that his daughter and me needed him. But he didn't come back."
The Daily News reports that Talley was walking in his Claremont Village neighborhood around 2 a.m. when a group of men spilled out of a Third Avenue club.
The group reportedly surrounded and began beating Talley's friend, identified as Carlos Garcia.
Talley tried to help Garcia and instead was stabbed several times in the head and chest.
He stumbled around the corner and collapsed before being rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later died. Garcia was hit by a car trying to escape the men. His injuries were not life-threatening.
"He was looking out for me," Garcia told the newspaper. "He came to my aid."
The 22-year-old Hernandez said Talley was ecstatic at becoming a father.
"He so happy right now, because he was a brand-new father," Talley's father, Robert Brunson, told the Daily News.
Brunson told the newspaper he was devastated, but not surprised by his son's brave act.
"All of them around here would stick up for each other," Brunson tearfully told the paper.
WEB PRODUCED BY: Bill King
