Joseph Lozito Used Martial Arts Tactic He Saw on TV to End Alleged Stabber's Spree

Feb. 14, 2011 — -- Joseph Lozito, the man being dubbed a hero for helping disarm and capture a New York man accused of going on a 28 hour stabbing spree, says that watching mixed martial arts fights for 20 years may have saved his life.

Lozito used his leg to sweep Maksim Gelman off his feet when the accused killer lunged at him on a subway car with what Lozito described as a "giant knife."

Lozito, his face bruised and his skulled slashed from his fight with Gelman, told "Good Morning America" today that he was alert to Gelman as soon as the suspect boarded the train at Penn Station.

"I didn't know what he had done, but he was definitely someone I was hoping everyone was keeping an eye on," Lozito said. "I kept an eye on him and it looked like everyone else was watching him, too."

What Gelman had done, according to police, was kill four people and leave four others badly injured.

Joseph Lozito, the man being dubbed a hero for helping disarm and capture a New York man accused of going on a 28 hour stabbing spree that left four people dead in New York, said that the accused murderer looked "shady."

"I didn't know what he had done, but he was definitely someone I was hoping everyone was keeping an eye on," Lozito said. "I kept an eye on him and it looked like everyone else was watching him, too."

Maksim Gelman, 23, was assigned anew attorney today. On Sunday, he was arraigned in a Brooklyn courtroom on charges of murder and assault for the fatal stabbing of four people and the assault of four others. When being led from the police precinct to the courthouse, Gelman showed no remorse, saying that he had been "set up."

Lozito, a father of two, was riding the subway Saturday morning when he helped end Gelman's daylong bloody spree.

By the time, Lozito boarded the train at Penn Station, Gelman's picture had already been splashed across New York newspapers, but Lozito is from Philadelphia and had no idea that Gelman was a wanted man.

"When I boarded the train at Penn Station, a good amount of people boarded and I noticed there were two police officers boarding with me. You could hear on their walkie talkies that something was going on...they were there for a reason," Lozito said.

Subway riders had spotted Gelman jumping off one train and onto another early Saturday morning.

When he boarded Lozito's subway car, he pounded on the conductor's door, demanding to be let in.

"When I first saw this man approach the motorman's quarters, he just looked off, he just looked like there was something about him. When he started knocking on the window, telling the police to let him in, it set up a red flag," he said.

When police began to move towards Gelman, the man began attacking Lozito.

"Basically, he was about two or three feet away from me. He took out a giant knife and just looked at me and said, 'You're going to die, you're going to die,' and then he lunged at me," Lozito said.