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.

Police: Man Goes on Stabbing Spree, Killing Four

Lozito, 6-foot-2 and 260 pounds, knew that he was more equipped than most to tackle the man.

"With the end result being as it is, that I'm alive, I'm glad he came at me because you know, generally on a subway train or in a room I'm generally one of the bigger people and in relatively good shape and I can probably handle myself a little better," he said.

With a leg swipe, Lozito helped knock down Gelman, a grafitti vandal with at least 10 prior arrests. Lozito said that watching mixed martial arts on television helped him fight Gelman.

"I guess you watch it for 20 years, you just pick up some things through osmosis," he said.

It wasn't until Lozito sat back down on the subway bench that he realized he was bleeding. Gelman had stabbed him on his head and hand.

"When I sat up, that's when I noticed all the blood pouring down on me. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. Another person on the train, I didn't see him at all, I wish I did, he had napkins and he came up behind me and basically the whole time just pressed on this wound [on the back of Lozito's head] which I think ended up being the deepest wound back here and just stayed there the whole time with me...To me, he's my hero," Lozito said.

Gelman began his bloody rampage on Friday morning after arguing with his mother over his use of her Lexus. When his step-father, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, intervened in the argument, Gelman allegedly stabbed him to death in his family's Brooklyn apartment, police said.

Gelman then went to the home of a female acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, where he stabbed her mother to death, police said. He allegedly hid in the home, waiting for Bulchenko to return to find her mother's dead body. When Bulchenko called 911, he chased her out of her home, stabbing her 11 times, police said.

Gelman's spree continued. He rear-ended a car and then slashed the chest of the driver three times, police said. Gelman took the man's car and ran over a pedestrian, 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, police said. Tenenbaum died from his injuries.

Maksim Gelman Has Arrest Record

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Gelman allegedly stabbed a livery cab driver and attacked a couple driving a Nissan. He stabbed the driver in his hands, hijacking the car, police said.

Gelman boarded a downtown bound subway train when a woman recognized him and alerted authorities. Gelman then ran across the tracks and boarded the same train as Lozito, police said.

Gelman was born in the Ukraine, but became a naturalized U.S. citizen five years ago, according to the Associated Press.

He had crack cocaine with him at the time of his arrest, police said.

"What's so horrendous and bizarre, we have no reason that we can give you as to why he did this," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a press conference over the weekend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.