pretty sensationalists, but hey

Slain for his subway seat: Stranger stabs D train straphanger to death after seat scuffle

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/21/2009-11-21_slain_for_his_subway_seat_stranger_stabs_d_train_straphanger_to_death_over_.html#ixzz0XXtK8PD6



A bugged-out exterminator went berserk on the D-train early Saturday, fatally plunging a knife into a fellow straphanger's neck after they argued over a subway seat.

Cops rushed to the train and nabbed the alleged killer thanks to a quick-thinking train conductor, who locked the doors and kept him inside the blood-spattered car.

"He stabs him right in the neck, possibly the jugular," a police source told the Daily News.

"Blood everywhere, complete mayhem."

Bronx resident Jerry Sanchez, 37, got on the northbound train at Rockefeller Center about 2 a.m.

He confronted the victim, who has not yet been identified, demanding he move a bag from the seat where the attacker wanted to sit.

The 36-year-old victim refused, and Sanchez pulled out a knife and stabbed him several times in the neck and face, cops said.

Terrified passengers rushed to the other side of the car, which arrived moments later at 53rd St. One of the passengers notified the crew via intercom.

The motorman contacted workers at the rail control center who called cops.

A police source said Sanchez tossed the knife on the tracks before cops boarded the train, while a transit official said it wasn't clear what happened to the weapon.

Cops found the mad bugman sitting down. He shrugged.

"'What? I didn't do nothing,'" he told cops. "Like nothing happened, like he's just another passenger." MTA officials praised the train crew.

"They did a really good job not letting him out of the car," a spokesman said.

The victim died on the train, where pools of blood were left along the length of the car.

Co-workers at Terminate Control, the Manhattan exterminator service where Sanchez works, said the boss sent him home on Friday morning for showing up late.

"But he took it in stride," one co-worker said. "Jerry's not someone to hold a grudge."

The suspect's brother, Louis Sanchez, told the News that Jerry hurt himself on the job last week when he fell two floors after a floor buckled under him.

"He was in pain because he fell," the brother said. "He was talking about headaches and backaches, and he was taking some kind of medication."

Friends and neighbors said Sanchez had been acting strangely since his accident. They said he'd been abusing painkillers.

Ferdar Ozel, 47, manager of My Place Family Pizza near Sanchez's home in Bedford Park, said the accused killer is a regular customer and does exterminating work for the pizza shop.

"I don't know what's wrong with him, but he's been acting strange for the last two weeks," Ozel said.

Sanchez was held at the Midtown North precinct yesterday awaiting charges.

Cops said Sanchez was arrested in 2004 for selling drugs.

sgoldsmith@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/21/2009-11-21_slain_for_his_subway_seat_stranger_stabs_d_train_straphanger_to_death_over_.html#ixzz0XXtSphTC