NEW YORK (AP) _ A graffiti artist armed with five knives went on a bloody 28-hour rampage across New York City, fatally stabbing his stepfather, ex-girlfriend and her mother, running down a pedestrian with a stolen Lexus and wounding four other people before being arrested in Times Square, police said.
Maksim Gelman, 23, was armed with a bloodied kitchen knife when he was taken into police custody at about 9 a.m. local time Saturday after a nightlong manhunt from Brooklyn into Manhattan, 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 the subway rider on the head and neck. 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 the police emergency dispatcher, 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 the 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 which ``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.
 |
(MCT) |
<한글 기사>
뉴욕서 20대男 28시간동안 '살인 행각'
(뉴욕 AP=연합뉴스) 미국 뉴욕에서 한 20대 남성이 28시간 동안 시내 곳곳을 쏘다니며 가족과 시민 4명을 살해하고 지하철 등에서 마구잡이로 흉기를 휘두르며 난동을 벌이다 결국 경찰에게 붙잡혔다.
12일(현지시각) 경찰에 따르면 그래피티(graffiti) 예술가인 막심 겔만(23)은 전날 오전 5시께 브루클린에 있는 자신의 아파트에서 친어머니와 언쟁 도중 양아버지(54)가 끼어들자 흉기로 양아버지를 살해하고 달아났다.
조사 결과 겔만은 어머니의 자가용을 몰게 해 달라고 어머니에게 요구했으나 거절당하자 말싸움을 시작한 것으로 드러났다.
겔만은 이어 오전 10시30분께 몇 블록 떨어진 전 여자친구(20) 집을 찾아갔다 집안에 있던 여자친구의 어머니(56)를 발견하고 흉기로 찔러 숨지게 했고, 오후 4시께 여자친구가 귀가하자 집 밖에까지 쫓아가 역시 흉기로 난자해 살해했다.
그는 여자친구 집을 나와 훔친 승용차로 시내를 질주하다 승용차를 추돌, 상대 운전자에게도 흉기를 휘두르고서 차량을 바꿔 타고 달아났다. 이 운전자는 가슴 부분에 상해를 입었으나 생명에는 지장이 없는 상태다.
겔만은 훔친 차량을 몰고 다시 도주하다 한 60대 보행자를 치여 숨지게 했고, 이후 미드우드에 있는 한 주택 진입로에 차량을 버리고서 배회하다 마주친 택시기사 등 남성 2명도 흉기로 찔러 다치게 했다.
수배령이 내려진 겔만은 다음날 오전 8시께 맨해튼 북부에서 남부로 가는 전철에 올랐다. 차내에서 그는 한 여성이 자신의 범행을 보도한 신문기사를 읽는 것을 보자 "그 사람들이 나에 관해 쓴 내용을 믿느냐"고 묻는 태연함까지 보였다.
겔만은 이어 오전 9시께 전철을 갈아타고서 운전석으로 가 경찰을 사칭해 문을 두드렸으나 미리 신고를 받고 잠복해 있던 경찰에게 결국 붙잡혔다. 그가 검거된 곳은 맨해튼 한복판인 타임스스퀘어 역이었다.
우크라이나 출신인 겔만은 2004~2005년께 어머니와 함께 미국에 귀화했고, 마약 등 전과 10범으로 진술도 오락가락하고 있다고 경찰은 전했다.
레이먼드 켈리 뉴욕시 경찰국장은 "매우 참혹하고 기이한 사건이다. 이런 사건을 본 적이 없다"며 "그가 왜 이런 짓을 했는지 전혀 모르겠다"고 말했다.
