N.Y. man's rampage kills 4, wounds 2, police say (knifed 5 in four locations - ran one down)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | February 13, 2011 | Verena Dobnik, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....stabbing rampage that took the lives of his stepfather, his ex-girlfriend and her mother was arrested Saturday at a subway stop in Times Square after slashing a man on a train, police said.

Maksim Gelman, 23, is also accused of running down a 62-year-old man while driving a stolen Lexus, one of two cars he hijacked a day earlier, said police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The pedestrian died later at a hospital.

"It's so horrendous and bizarre. We have no reason to know why he did this," Kelly said.

The bloody rampage started early Friday, when police say Gelman fatally knifed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, 54, at their apartment in Brooklyn, Kelly said.

Gelman then stole his mother's Lexus and drove off, hitting a 62-year-old pedestrian, police said.

At about 10:30 a.m., Gelman entered the home of his ex-girlfriend and used a kitchen knife to fatally stab her mother, Anna Bulchenko, 56, Kelly said. When her daughter, 20-year-old Yelena Bulchenko, arrived home in the afternoon, she found her mother's body and called 911, police said.

Gelman, who apparently was still in the house, chased Yelena Bulchenko out and stabbed her to death, Kelly said.

He then fled in the Lexus, rear-ending a Pontiac whose driver confronted Gelman and was stabbed three times in the chest but survived, Kelly said.

The commissioner said Gelman confronted a couple in a Nissan just before 1 a.m. Saturday, stabbing the man multiple times and taking the car.

Hours later, Gelman was finally taken from a subway train at Times Square after he knifed a passenger,....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He must have been covered with blood after the first killing, more after the second and third stabbing deaths; he must have been soaked in it by the time he stabbed the man who confronted him after he ran into his car and when he boarded the train and knifed a passenger.....

He also killed a pedestrian with a car.

No mention of a gun.

[sinanju]

Why do this murderous schizophrenic freakouts usually seem to happen in NYC? Like the subway pushers and ferry slashers, we’ll find out he was giving off waning signs right and left and would have been committed if such a thing were possible these days.

[Gene Eric]

Crazies ping.

[cydcharisse]

NY City is by far the largest city in the country. More people= more nuts.

[Irishguy]

i assume they will ban knives and cars...they are obviously dangerous..prayers for the people who have died...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Maksim Gelman's 28 hours of madness: Accused killer butchered four in bloody rampage

Madman Maksim Gelman's violent rampage spanned nearly 28 hours and two boroughs.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....More people= more nuts.

I wonder if this killer was on drugs. I don't agree that a high population drives people crazy. That is too simplistic.

[NTHockey]

NYC is a sanctuary city, no? Booomberg and city council might be accessories before the fact.

[kabumpo]

These — the perp’s family and the g.f.’s family - are Russian immigrants.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/02/12/2011-02-12_cops_continue_hunt_for_brooklyn_sicko_who_left_4_dead_2_injured_in_stabbing_carj.html?page=1

“.......The frenzy finally came to an end after Gelman wildly hacked at a man on an uptown No. 3 train leaving Penn Station for 42nd St., sending screaming passengers running to safety.

“I looked inside and saw a bunch of people running toward me,” said John Bodensiek, 53, who was on the train. “There was panic. People were running and saying, ‘Move! Move! Move!’”

Gelman pounded on the motorman’s compartment, screaming “Police! Police!”

Instead of the motorman, transit cops Terrance Howell and Tamara Taylor stepped out, and Howell wrestled Gelman to the ground as he reached for a knife.

Off-duty detective Marcelo Razzo ran from the third car and helped subdue the suspect, who had ditched four knives in a getaway car but still had two.

Transit cops were on high alert after reports that Gelman was spotted on a No. 1 train traveling south from 137th St., Kelly said.

“Do you believe what they’re saying about me?” Gelman said as he knocked a newspaper bearing his photo out of a woman’s hand, Kelly said.

Investigators believe Gelman stepped off at 34th St. and crossed on the tracks to an uptown No. 3. He walked to the front car, wailed about his dead ex-girlfriend and randomly slashed rider Joseph Lozito, 40.

“[Gelman] said, ‘You’re going to die,’” Lozito’s sister, a city cop, said at Bellevue Hospital, where her brother was in stable condition.

“He tried to get to the conductor. He couldn’t, so he just turned around looking for the next person - that was my brother.”

As the train screeched to a halt before Times Square, a wave of cops got on and rushed toward the first car to haul out Gelman.

Gelman - who sources said appeared to be on drugs - dropped a blood-stained 10-inch knife in the struggle.

He was taken to the 61st Precinct stationhouse, where cops asked him why so many people were killed or hurt.

“Why?! Because I say so!” he said, according to a law-enforcement source.

“His explanation, if you can call it that, is ‘These people have to die, they had to die, that was their destination,’” the source said.

The protracted bloodbath began 5 a.m. Friday at Gelman’s home over a seemingly trivial matter - use of his stepdad’s Lexus.

The suspect - who had 10 prior arrests, but none for violent felonies.......”

[VeniVidiVici]

I’m sure that idiot McCarthy will introduce a bill in the House come Monday that bans knives.

[fortheDeclaration]

But hey, lets not have a death penalty!

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, the politicans of NY, like Bloomberg can be very proud that they have a disarmed, helpless population.

[Flavius]

This is why sharp sticks are banned in England

BBC NEWS | Health | Doctors’ kitchen knives ban call
May 26, 2005 ... A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4581871.stm - Cached - Similar

[Cvengr]

[cunning_fish]

In fact his surname is Jewish-Ukrainian, other victims’ are just Ukrainian.

[Erik Latranyi]

“His explanation, if you can call it that, is ‘These people have to die, they had to die, that was their destination,’”

Destination - ? Watching too many movies, perhaps?

[visualops]

I think she meant it’s proportional.

[wintertime]

,... she found her mother's body and called 911, police said. Gelman, who apparently was still in the house, chased Yelena Bulchenko out and stabbed her to death,

When seconds count, police are minutes away.

[jdfromny]

In the 1990’s Mario Cuomo, Andrew’s pappy decided to close most of the mental hospitals in NY state to save money. Now these folks are told to go home or to a “group home” and take their meds and talk to some social worker.

Society still has to pay for all of it in the end, like in this instance and millions of others that never get reported, but at least the Cuomo’s sleep better knowing they closed all the mental hospitals.