At least four New Yorkers were killed in a stabbing spree by a man whose rampage left a trail of blood from an immigrant neighbourhood to touristy Times Square, police said Sunday. The 23-year-old suspect, Maksim Gelman, was wrestled by police to the floor of a Subway car in the Times Square station on Saturday shortly after allegedly slashing his last victim.
His crazed spree began 28 hours earlier in a Brooklyn neighbourhood home to large numbers of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, where Gelman allegedly killed his stepfather, ex-girlfriend and her mother. He then ran down a pedestrian, his fourth victim, in a stolen car at the start of a wild journey across the city, according to police. At least four others were stabbed and wounded, including the car's owner, a taxi driver and a Subway passenger. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who has worked for the New York Police Department for decades, said he was baffled.
The police chief said Gelman would likely have just kept on stabbing, had he not been caught and overpowered on the train. "Obviously, if he wasn't apprehended this morning, he could have injured, killed many more people," Kelly said.