A Salem man is in jail on charges of fatally stabbing a Pelham man after the two fought over a woman both men had been seeing, police and neighbors said.

Scott Hanks, 49, of 87 Lake Shore Road, was arrested on Sunday, April 6, on first-degree assault and negligent homicide charges for stabbing William Solberg Jr., 46, in the stomach with a 15-inch sword, police said.

Police and a state prosecutor allege Hanks approached Solberg’s pickup truck outside Hanks’ lakeside home with a sword around 5 p.m., piercing one of the tires and beginning a struggle with the Pelham man.

According to neighbor Michael Naffah, Solberg and Hanks knew each other but their relationship grew confrontational when Solberg found out Hanks had dating been his girlfriend. Solberg’s sister Mary Beth Cosgrove said her brother was upset to learn that Patricia Walsh, his live-in girlfriend of about five years, had been seeing Hanks.

“I think she was still living with my brother and things may have not been going well,” she said.

Naffah said he looked out his front window on Sunday evening and saw Hanks and Solberg struggling in the driveway. Although Naffah rushed across the street to help break up the fight, he said Solberg was laying on the ground bleeding from his stomach when he arrived.

Naffah believed Hanks was acting in self-defense. He and Hanks were trying to help Solberg as someone called for an ambulance, he said.

“He wouldn’t have done anything like that outright. Scott was trying to help him,” Naffah said.

Solberg was transported to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Mass., where he died from the wound.

On Monday, April 7, investigators recovered a white-handled sword from Canobie Lake, according to a neighbor’s video recording of dive teams in the water.

Hanks was arraigned at Salem District Court on Monday, April 7, where a judge set his bail at $100,000. No plea was entered, since district court does not accept any plea on felony matters.

Assistant Attorney General Karen Huntress would only confirm that the men knew each other at the time of the incident.