By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — A madman suspected of four Brooklyn murders caused chaos on a packed subway Saturday when he stabbed a straphanger in the neck, police said.
Maksim Gelman was being hunted after a vicious killing spree on Friday left his stepfather, an ex-girlfriend and her mother dead in Sheepshead Bay. Another man was killed when he was hit by Gelman's car as the lunatic fled the scene.
Police said officers tracked Gelman, 23, to a No. 3 train at 8.45 a.m. Saturday after a passenger told cops on a platform that he had knocked a newspaper out of her hands, yelling, "Do you believe what they're writing about me?"
Two police officers found Gelman on a train pasing between Penn Station and Times Square.
"They observed that Gelman, armed with a large kitchen knife, had stabbed a 40-year-old male passenger in the left side of his neck," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
"Officer (Terrance) Howell jumped on Gelman and brought him to the ground, knocking the knife from his hand."
Gelman, who Kelly said was born in the Ukraine but is a US citizen, was arrested and was being questioned Saturday afternoon. Another knife was found on his person.
The injured passenger, who has not been named, is in stable condition at St Luke's Hospital, said Kelly.
The incident left the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 train service paralyzed for most of the morning, and caused passengers to be traumatized.
Straphanger Hyun Jo, 35, was two cars behind the stabbing.
"The train kept starting and stopping," he told DNAinfo.
"Then people started flooding back through the train, masses of people were coming down from the front.
"Their faces were pale, they were walking through with ashen faces."
Gelman, who Kelly said is a "heavy drug user," started his rampage started early Friday when he allegedly stabbed his stepfater, Aleksandr Kuznetso, multiple times in Sheepshead Bay.
He then drove to the home of his former girlfriend, Yelena Bulchenko. Police said he stabbed her mother, Anna, and waited for Bulchenko to come home. He chased her into the street, killing her and slashing the jacked sleeve of a neighbor who tried to intervene, police said.
He then jumped into his car, smashing into another vehicle. He stabbed that driver in the chest, leaving him in stable condition. He then sped off, hitting and killing pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum.
At least another two people were hurt during the rampage, and police fear there could have been more.
"It's so horrendous and bizarre, we have no reason that we can give you why he did it," said Kelly.
