[Suspect in NYC stabbing spree headed to court AP By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Colleen Long, Associated Press – 31 mins ago NEW YORK – A man accused of going on a bloody 28-hour rampage through New York City was expected to appear in court Sunday, a day after he was tackled on a subway train by police. Maksim Gelman, 23, was to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court in the deaths of four people, including his stepfather, a female acquaintance and her mother, and a complete stranger he ran over with a car, prosecutors said. A massive manhunt ended Saturday morning after he randomly stabbed a passenger on a train as it passed beneath Times Square. It's not clear if he has an attorney, and it was possible the court hearing could be moved back to Monday. The violent spree started just after 5 a.m. Friday, when police say Gelman snapped during an argument over the use of his mother's Lexus sedan. His stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, intervened and was stabbed to death at their apartment in Brooklyn. Police found the 54-year-old's body in his home. His mother was uninjured. Later that morning, Gelman turned up at the home of a 20-year-old acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, and stabbed to death her mother, 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko. When Yelena arrived home at about 4 p.m., she found her mother dead in a pool of blood and called 911. But Gelman was waiting for her there, chased her outside and stabbed her 11 times, authorities said. He sped away in his mom's car to another part of Brooklyn, where he rear-ended a Pontiac, then stabbed the driver when he confronted Gelman about the crash, police said. The driver was slashed three times in the chest but survived and was stable at an area hospital. Gelman left the man bleeding on the street and drove off in his Pontiac, but smacked into 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, who died from his injuries. He abandoned the car later, engine running, in a private driveway, not far from a freight railroad where he was once caught spray-painting graffiti, said police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Police hunted him, but the fugitive disappeared until just before 1 a.m. Saturday, when police say he confronted and stabbed a livery cab driver in Brooklyn, north of where the other incidents occurred. Shortly afterward, 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?" according to police Gelman jumped off the train at the West 34th Street station, crossed the tracks and hopped on a northbound No. 3 train, where he sliced a passenger, the commissioner said. Officers were in the driver's compartment of the train looking for him on the tracks, when 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. The Ukraine-born Gelman and his mother became naturalized U.S. citizens about five years ago, Kelly said. He lived with his family in a predominantly Eastern European section of Brooklyn. Gelman was known to be a troublemaker and has a criminal history, but the arrests were mostly non-violent, for criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal mischief or graffiti, though some of his arrest records were sealed. Gelman made some incoherent statements to police after his arrest, including "she had to die," but it's not clear to whom he was referring, Kelly said. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I saw this and thought it may be good reason for carrying a nice knarley, spiky blackthorn stick. If a firearm is not in the picture, I can't think of any other non firearm weapon to fend off or clobber a nut case knife weilder. Kubotons and knife is too darn close. At least with a walking stick length of wood, you can keep some distance.
I thought they caught him with a kitchen knife. So no more kitchen knives in NYC, a typical knee jerk reaction!
Wait, I thought Nyc was safe. Bloomberg said she took away all the weapons. (toung firmly planted in cheak)
i will now be suspicious of anyone from eastern europe, these people need to be profiled so as to protect the rest of us
There was a knife/gun rampage in Virginia as well; http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-scene/update-on-the-news/va-murder-suspect-was-ordered.html, do not expect to see a knife/gun outcry down here - the focus will be on the immigration system.
That would be nice, but not possable in NYC, D.C., Boston, Chicago, London, Paris, and most other cites in the rest of the world. Some people have to go without the luxury of a gun. There for we have other weapons. It's a true fact of life, you can't take your gun everywhere with you. In fact, in most of the rest of the world, a knife attack is far more likely than a gun assault. The favorite steet punks weapons are the box cutter and serated edge steak knife.
Any sort of cane or stout walking stick, and some training and practice will do very well. Any old bear cop from the old days with a night stick could have delt with him easily. A stick gives you longer reach than he has, and you can block the knifes cutting edge with it. There are some martial arts studios that have stick traing, but even your old army pugil stick training will do. The two times I had to resort to my stick, I fell back into the pugil stick stuff withpout even thinking about it. And it's been a very long time since my boot camp at Fort Dix New Jersey! As long as you can block the blade with somthing, he can't hurt you. Stick, chair, trash can lid, fire extinguisher, ( try spraying it in his eyes), umbrella, tightly rolled up magazine, briefcase, broom handle if not the whole broom, the list is endless. Another is to carry a good brand of pepper spray like Fox or Sabre, and while staying out of reach, spray him down like a big bug. No bothering with neat little 3 second bursts, empty the whole can on him. There's always alternatives to just standing there and getting cut. Carl.
Absolutely true. Running doesn't always work, especially with a younger attacker. As usual, jackknife is right in his assessment. A cane is one of the best tools for dealing with a knifer. Throwing stuff can also help. Anything heavy and solid will at least make the miscreant duck while you beat feet or follow up with another defensive move, like a smashing blow from a cane. Rocks are the classic choice, but there are lots of things in our environment that can work. My favorite tool against a knife is a lightweight chair. Used aggressively, it forces the attacker to deal with four poking attacks at once. It can also be thrown. Marc "Animal" MacYoung once said: "There is no good way to catch a chair." Unfortunately, this may be the new trend in "safe," "weapon-free" zones. In a place where the law-abiding have been disarmed, a nut with a big knife or a machete is very hard to stop. At least with a good cane, we can stay within the law and still have some effect on our own survival chances. Here in Texas, the bad guy would not have fared well against the average citizen with a Concealed Handgun License and a .38 revolver. All my best, Dirty Bob
