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 abruptly attacked passenger Joseph Lozito with a kitchen knife, according to authorities and accounts Lozito gave reporters.
"You're going to die!" Gelman told Lozito, according to a court complaint. Lozito, of Philadelphia, suffered head and arm wounds that required 26 staples and 20 stitches, according a court complaint.
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Police officers, who were in the train driver's compartment looking for Gelman, wrestled him to the ground soon afterward, authorities said.
The capture ended a rampage that started a day earlier with a family argument over the use of Gelman's mother's car, police said.
After killing his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, 54, in the family's Brooklyn apartment, Gelman went to the home of a female acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, 20, police said. He killed her mother, 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko, then waited hours for the daughter to return and stabbed her 11 times, authorities said.
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 pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, 62, 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.
Gelman was next spotted on a subway in Manhattan, where passengers on another train recognized him from newspaper photographs and notified police, authorities said. He dashed across the tracks, switched trains and attacked Lozito, police said.
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.
