By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Alleged serial slasher Maksim Gelman became obsessed with one of his alleged victims and stalked her for months, friends of Yelena Bulchenko told the New York Post.
Gelman was arrested after allegedly stabbing a man on a Times Square subway Saturday, the end of a 28-hour stabbing spree that began inside his home in Brooklyn, officials said.
Straphanger Joseph Lozito, 40, a 6-foot two-inch tall martial arts aficionado who works as a ticket taker at Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall, helped to shut Gelman down in a bloody faceoff inside the 3 train in Times Square, according to the Daily News.
Gelman allegedly began his murderous spree last Friday morning, when he stabbed his stepfather to death inside their Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn home. He then drove to the home of Yelena Bulchenko, 20, a woman who he had allegedly been stalking for some time, reportedly running down a crossing guard en route and breaking the woman's legs.
Once inside Bulchenko's home Friday, Gelman allegedly murdered her mother Anna and then lay in wait until Bulchenko returned before stabbing her to death in the middle of the street, police said.
Gelman had claimed Bulchenko was his girlfriend but her boyfriend and other friends dismissed his rantings, adding that their relationship was nonexistent.
"My girlfriend ruined my life!" Gelman, 23, reportedly yelled before slashing his final victim on an uptown 3 train Saturday.
He told police "she had to die," according to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Gelman reportedly slashed three more men during carjackings in the area and fatally struck pedestrian Steve Tannenbaum, 60, by hitting him with his car at Avenue R and Ocean Avenue as he fled the murder scene, according to reports.
Bulchenko's friends said Gelman, who police said was a heavy drug user, was delusional and could not take no for an answer after the woman rejected him following a brief relationship, the Post reported.
"He was stalking her," Gerard Honig, Bulchenko's actual boyfriend, told the Post. "He would call her a lot, he harrassed her on the phone."
Gelman allegedly left threatening messages for Bulchenko and, in one instance, even pounded on her door yelling that he would kill her unless she opened the door, neighbors told the paper.
The Post reported that NYPD tracking dogs followed Gelman's trail to a drug-paraphernalia-littered hovel underneath the LIRR overpass near Brooklyn College where Gelman had been caught before for graffiti. They found a red heart with the name "Yelena" spray-painted on it, the Post reported.
Gelman was arraigned in Brooklyn on Sunday night on four counts of murder, one of attempted murder, one count of assault, two counts of robbery and two counts of possession of a weapon, and is due back in Brooklyn court Monday, officials said. He could be brought to Manhattan court later this week to face charges on the Times Square subway slashing, officials said.
Although Bulchenko hadn't had any contact with Gelman in months, one of her friends called her Friday morning to warn her that Gelman had killed his stepfather, the Post reported.
