Maksim Gelman

The Maksim Gelman stabbing spree was a 28-hour killing spree lasting from February 11 to 12, 2011, in New York City, which involved the killing of four people and the wounding of five others. The person who did it was of course Maksim Gelman was arrested and pleaded guilty to the crimes.

Maksim Gelman was born on May 31st, 1987 in Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Soviet Union. In 1995, him and his father moved to Brooklyn, His mother joined them two years later. Gelman attended James Madison High School before being transferred to Abraham Lincoln High School. He was known around the school as being a skateboarder. He was very popular, without many friends or girlfriends, which reportedly amplified his paranoid and antisocial tendencies. He started to get into a lot of Trouble, he got arrested several times, mostly for graffiti-related Offences. Among Graffiti artists, he was known as a largely unwanted troublemaker. Gelman also became a drug dealer of cocaine, prescription pills, and PCP.

The Stabbing Spree
It Started Just after 5:00 a.m.on February 11, 2011, Gelman stabbed and killed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn after an argument with his mother about driving Kuznetsov's vehicle. According to Gelman, he believed the police were after him and he planned to flee to the Dominican Republic. He claimed he woke his mother to find out where his passport was, and this developed into an argument as his mother believed he was drunk. Their argument awoke Kuznetsov, who came into the kitchen swearing at Gelman in Russian. Gelman grabbed a knife and stabbed Kuznetsov repeatedly. When the knife broke, Gelman continued the attack with a carving fork, ultimately stabbing Kuznetsov 55 times. His mother was not physically hurt. Gelman then took the vehicle and sped off in it, running over a crossing guard and breaking her leg.

Gelman sped away knowing he will be caught. Gelman then Broke into the house of a Woman named Yelena Bulchenko. That where he Stabbed her mother, Anna, at about 10:30 a.m. He then ran out of the house and waited several hours for Yelena, who had been staying at a friend's house, to return home. Once she did, she found Anna dead and called 9-1-1, but Gelman was on his way back to the scene to check if she returned home. Upon arrival at about 4:00 p.m., he spotted her outside on the phone and got out of the car, upon which she yelled at him. He then took out a knife and approached her, but she took off running. However, Gelman caught up with her and stabbed her eleven times, killing her, before speeding off in Kuznetsov's car. He Purposely crashed into another car, Gelman then stabbed the wounded the driver, Arthur DiCrescento, three times when he confronted him, before carjacking the vehicle. Gelman later ran over 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, who subsequently died of his injuries.

Trial and sentencing
On February 13, 2011, Gelman was arraigned in a Brooklyn courtroom on charges of murder and assault, where he was represented by public defender Michael Baum. While being led by the police into the courthouse, in front of a crowd of onlookers and reporters, Gelman reportedly showed no remorse, saying that he had been "set up". Although no motive for the murders has been yet offered by the authorities, it has been speculated in the media that the rampage was triggered by Gelman's advances being scorned by Yelena Bulchenko. He was given a 200 year sentence that he is still serving.