Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

A knife-wielding maniac who went on a day-long rampage of stabbings, carjackings and hit-and-runs, leaving four people dead, was stopped by a brave man who was on his way to work at Lincoln Center, according to the Daily News.  Maksim Gelman, 23, reportedly went on a 28-hour violence spree as a result of rage towards ex-girlfriend Yelena Bulchenko, one of the murder victims, before ending up on an uptown 3 train that was leaving Penn Station on Saturday morning.  Joseph Lozito, a 6-foot-2, 270-pound ticket seller at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall (near 65th and Columbus), happened to be sitting in the first car of that 3 train as he completed his long commute to work from Philadelphia.  Lozito first noticed a commotion on the train platform, where cops were searching for Gelman, and became more alert of problems when Gelman headed to the front of the car and tried to enter the motorman’s car.  When he was denied entry, Gelman drew close to Lozito, uttering a chilling threat, “you are going to die,” before lunging at him.  Thanks to his many hours of watching mixed martial arts on television, Lozito says he “took him down” with a single leg sweep.  Gelman reached under his jacket, pulled out an 8-inch Wusthof chef’s knife and began slashing.  “I was trying to get control of his wrist. I didn’t really feel anything,” said Lozito, who warned Gelman that he had picked the wrong guy to fight.  The cops, joined by an off-duty detective who ran into the car, pulled Gelman off and arrested him, offering a dramatic ending to the violent story.  Lozito as rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors closed a 4-inch gash on the back of his head, an 8-inch wound behind his right ear, two 3-inch slashes on his left arm, a cut under his eye and two deep cuts to his thumb.  As he heals, Gelman awaits indictment, which could happen as early as Friday, on four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, one count of assault, two counts of robbery and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.

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Tags: Attempted Murder, Avery Fisher Hall, Joseph Lozito, Maksim Gelman, Murder, Stab, Stabbing, Yelena Bulchenko