Maksim Gelman Charged With Killing 4 People & Wounding 4 Others In A Stabbing Rampage Across NYC UPDATE: Maksim Gelman Sentenced To 200 Years In Prison Plus 25!

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Verena Dobnik, Associated Press – Sun Feb 13, 6:55 am ET

NEW YORK – It apparently began, police said, when a 23-year-old graffiti artist asked his mother if he could drive her Lexus. She said no.

The ensuing fight between them escalated into a bloody 28-hour rampage across New York City as the man — armed with five knives — fatally stabbed his stepfather, ex-girlfriend and her mother, ran down a pedestrian in a stolen car, and slashed and wounded four other people before being arrested in a Times Square subway station, police said.

Maksim Gelman had a bloodied kitchen knife when he was taken into police custody at about 9 a.m. Saturday after a nightlong manhunt, police said.

"It's so horrendous and bizarre. We have no reason to know why he did this," said police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who held up a photo of the knife that he said Gelman had used to slash a subway rider on the head and neck before he was apprehended. The man survived.

"I don't recall seeing anything like this," said Kelly, who has spent decades working for the New York Police Department.

He said charges were pending against Gelman.

The stabbing spree started just after 5 a.m. Friday, when police say Gelman fatally knifed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, at their apartment in Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. Gelman had gotten into a fight with his mother after she refused to allow him to use her Lexus, and Kuznetsov intervened and was attacked, Kelly said.

Police found the 54-year-old man's body at his home in the predominantly Eastern European immigrant neighborhood. The Ukrainian-born Gelman and his mother became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2004 or 2005, Kelly said.

At about 10:30 a.m., several blocks away, Gelman entered the home of his ex-girlfriend and used a kitchen knife to fatally stab her mother, 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko, Kelly said. When 20-year-old Yelena Bulchenko arrived home at about 4 p.m., she found her mother dead in a pool of blood and called 911, police said.

Gelman apparently was still in the house, chasing Bulchenko as she fled outside and stabbing her 11 times as she died, Kelly said.

He then sped away in the Lexus to Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood, rear-ending a Pontiac. The driver confronted Gelman and was stabbed three times in the chest but survived and was in stable condition, Kelly said.

Gelman drove off in the Pontiac, hitting 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, who died of his injuries, police said. He later abandoned the car, engine running, in the driveway of a private house in Midwood, not far from a freight railroad line "Gelman frequented as a graffiti artist," Kelly said.

Gelman was not seen again until just before 1 a.m. Saturday, when he confronted a livery cab driver in the Crown Heights area and stabbed him, Kelly said. Shortly after, he approached a couple in a Nissan, stabbing the man multiple times in the hand before hijacking the car, police said. Both men survived.

Just after 8 a.m. Saturday, passengers on a southbound No. 1 train in upper Manhattan noticed that a man on the train matched photos of Gelman they had seen in newspapers.

One passenger on the train got off at West 96th Street, approached officers on the platform and told them that a man fitting Gelman's description knocked a newspaper out of her hand, saying, "Do you believe what they're writing about me?" Kelly said.

Gelman jumped off the train at the West 34th Street station, crossed the tracks and hopped on a northbound No. 3 train, where he stabbed a passenger, the commissioner said.

Officers were in the driver's compartment of the train after hearing reports that Gelman might be on board. Gelman made his way up to the driver's door and pounded on it, "claiming that he was the police," Kelly said.

One of the officers threw open the door and wrestled Gelman to the ground, knocking the knife from his hand, Kelly said.

He was taken into custody from the train at Times Square. None of Gelman's relatives could be reached for comment Saturday.

"I saw a stream of people coming from the front of the train. They looked upset. They had white faces," Hyun Jo of East Orange, N.J., told the New York Post. "The conductor announced they 'found the guy who killed four people yesterday.' I saw the blood in the other car when they let us off. It was crazy."

Kelly described Gelman as an unemployed drug user with 10 previous arrests — mostly linked to graffiti and drugs.

The commissioner said the suspect's statements to police were "pretty incoherent" — including one in which he stated that "she had to die." Kelly said he wasn't sure if that was a reference to the ex-girlfriend or someone else.

A longtime friend of Yelena Bulchenko, Angela Akopyan, said the first time she heard of Gelman was Friday. "I never heard of him prior to yesterday. Ever in my life," she said.

She described Bulchenko as "always happy." "She was just a really good person to be around," Akopyan said.

Bulchenko worked as a receptionist at a dental office in Brooklyn, and had attended Kingsborough Community College, she said. The last time Akopyan saw her was Tuesday, when a group of friends got together at an Applebee's. "It was the first time we saw each other in the past two weeks. We were making plans for the weekend like we always do," Akopyan said. "And then it never happened."

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OMG. Why was this monster not in jail for his many drug arrests? This is so darn sad. Devastating.

Follow the rampage in Broolyn and Manhattan that left four dead:

THE KILLINGS

1. 2830 E. 27th St., 5 a.m. Friday
Gelman, 23, savagely stabs his mother’s boyfriend, Alexsandr Kuznetsov, 54, to death with a kitchen knife after the hulking man refuses to turn over the keys to the family Lexus. His mom, Svetlana, is unharmed.
2. Avenue S and Ocean Avenue, 8:15 a.m.
School safety agent Adamantia Nikalaydakis, 41, is struck with a similar-looking vehicle and is treated at Lutheran Hospital with a broken leg. Unconfirmed if it was Gelman’s Lexus.

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3. 2466 E. 24th St., 10 a.m.
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Gelman enters the home of his stalking victim, Yelena Bulchenko, and fatally stabs her mother, Anna, 56. He waits there for hours until the daughter comes home at 4:20 p.m., and after a brief chase around the house, stabs her to death.

4. East 24th Street and Avenue U, a few minutes later

Gelman flees, ditching the Lexus nd carjacking a double-parked Pontiac Bonneville from Arthur DiCrescento, 60, who Gelman stabs three times in the chest. The victim is not killed.

5. Ocean Parkway near Avenue R, 4:30 p.m.

Gelman runs over pedestrian Stephen Tannebaum, 62, who later dies at Kings County Hospital. The killer escapes.

THE PURSUIT

6. 838 Ave. H, 9:15 p.m.

The Bonneville is found empty and still running.

7. Eastern Parkway and St. Marks Place, 12:45 a.m. yesterday

Gelman flags down a Lincoln Town Car driven by Fullerton Fitz, 55. He jumps in the back, pulls a knife and they struggle. Fitz is stabbed non-fatally in the neck and shoulder. Gelman flees on foot.

8. 1710 Eastern Pkwy., minutes later

Gelman rushes a Nissan Maxima parked outside a church. Driver Sheldon Pottinger, 25, desperately holds on to the wheel, but gets shoved to the passenger seat and stabbed non-fatally in the arm and leg. Gelman flees in the car, and the victim jumps out at Rockaway Avenue.

THE CAPTURE

9. Broadway and West 137th Street/Broadway and West 96th Street, 8:45 a.m.

Gelman is spotted on a downtown 1 train, where he snatches a newspaper with his photo from another rider, saying “Do you believe what they are writing about me?”

10. Subway tunnel under Seventh Avenue between 34th Street and 42nd Street, 9:15 a.m.

Gelman gets off the 1 train, jumps onto the tracks and boards an uptown 3 train by climbing up between cars. He bangs on the operator’s door and yells, “My girlfriend ruined my life!” He turns his rage on a 40-year-old passenger, whom he stabs — the victim is in critical condition. Transit cops subdue Gelman.

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A man charged with killing four people and wounding four others in a 28-hour rampage across New York City was charged Wednesday with slashing a subway rider's head in a final burst of violence moments before his dramatic arrest beneath Times Square.

Maksim Gelman didn't enter a plea or speak as he was arraigned on attempted murder and assault charges, appearing via video link from a hospital where he's being held in a psychiatric ward on a slate of murder and other counts.

The Ukraine-born Gelman is accused of attacking his stepfather; a woman whose friends say Gelman was obsessed with her; the woman's mother; and total strangers in a spree that spanned homes, streets and subways. Most victims were stabbed or slashed; one was run over.

The handcuffed Gelman appeared calm and attentive during the brief proceeding, saying only "thank you" to his lawyer as he was led away afterward. His attorney didn't address the charges.

Wednesday's arraignment was limited to what police said was Gelman's last attack before officers tackled him in a subway train in Manhattan Feb. 12.

Gelman has told reporters both that the case is a setup and that his mind sometimes "isn't right."

He's being held without bail.

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02/15/12


Already serving 200 years in prison for killing four people in a bloody rampage, Maksim Gelman grinned on his way into court Wednesday, swore at a man he assaulted during the crime spree, and defiantly made light of the proceeding as he was sentenced to 25 more years.

Gelman made an abrupt marriage proposal to a reality TV star and directed profanities at the subway rider he knifed in the head and arm at the end of his series of assaults and carjackings last year.

Joseph Lozito, a mixed martial arts fan who says he drew on moves he'd seen on TV to knock Gelman to the floor after being attacked, took Gelman's insults in stride. Seeing Gelman in court for the first time since the attack a year ago, Lozito said what he saw was "still the soul of a coward."

"I hope you rot in your cell. And you have hell to look forward to, so enjoy it," Lozito said to Gelman.

Gelman, 24, attacked Lozito in a final burst of violence during a 28-hour crime spree that started with an argument over the use of Gelman's mother's car, spanned two of New York City's five boroughs and victimized his relatives, acquaintances and total strangers.

Gelman pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in Brooklyn, where he blamed his victims and was disrespectful to the judge while being sentenced last month to 200 years behind bars. The subway stabbing was handled separately because it happened in Manhattan, where Gelman pleaded guilty last month to attempted murder.

Wednesday, Gelman seemed to relish his role as the villain.

Given his chance to speak, he said all he wanted to say was "Kim Kardashian, will you marry me?'" and then finished his brief remarks with some obscenities directed at Lozito.

Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers noted that the sentencing was a formality, given Gelman's massive sentence in Brooklyn. But still, the judge said, it provided a look at a "wicked man."

"We've been subjected today to something of this man's evil, unrepentant nature," Carruthers said. "Remove him."

Born in Ukraine, Gelman became a U.S. citizen about five years before the attacks, police said. He had a record of mostly nonviolent arrests on such charges as drug possession or making graffiti, though some of his arrest records were sealed.

The bloody trail began Feb. 11, 2011, in Gelman's family's Brooklyn apartment, where he killed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov, 54, had intervened in Gelman's argument with his mother over the car, police said.

Gelman then went to the Brooklyn home of Yelena Bulchenko, a female acquaintance whose friends have said he imagined was his girlfriend. He killed Bulchenko's 56-year-old mother, Anna, then waited hours for the daughter to return and killed her, stabbing her 11 times.

Gelman drove away, rear-ended another car and stabbed its driver when he confronted Gelman, police said. The driver survived.

Stealing the wounded man's car, Gelman drove off and plowed into Stephen Tanenbaum, 62, a pedestrian who died from his injuries, police said. After abandoning the car, Gelman later hailed a livery cab and attacked its driver, then approached another car, attacked a man inside and hijacked the car, police said. Both men survived.

About seven hours later, passengers on a subway in upper Manhattan alerted police after noticing that a man on the train matched photos of Gelman they had seen in newspapers. Gelman hopped off that train and got on another, where he hacked at Lozito with a large kitchen knife, yelling, "You're going to die," according to a court complaint.

Lozito, a Lincoln Center ticket seller who has never trained in mixed martial arts but has watched the ultimate-fighting sport since 1993, said he fought back with a move known as a single-leg takedown.

"When you attacked me and I took you down, you went down real easy," he told Gelman in court.

"You didn't take me down," Gelman said in the first of several outbursts.

Lozito, 41, said outside court that he'd shaken off Gelman's remarks as "irrelevant."

As they grappled on the train, police were in the driver's compartment, having heard reports that Gelman might be on board. Gelman had in fact pounded on the door to the compartment, claiming he was an officer, police said.

Police said that after Lozito was stabbed, one of the officers threw open the door and overpowered Gelman, knocking the knife from his hand.

Lozito, who has moved to New York's Long Island from Philadelphia since the attack, sued the city and police late last month. He says they didn't act fast enough. The city Law Department said Wednesday it was reviewing the suit and preparing a response.

After the attack, another passenger, Alfred Douglas, pressed his hands and then a paper towel or napkin to Lozito's wounds to try to stop the bleeding before paramedics got to the train, Lozito noted Wednesday.

"To me, he's the unsung hero" of the attack, Lozito said.

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OMG!! I am so Relieved he got 200 years and can never hurt anyone again. This guy is NUTS!

Thank you for updating this case!