Cops: 2 stabbed in Massapequa strip mall

A Westbury woman and her ex-boyfriend were both hospitalized in critical but stable condition after he stabbed her 13 times Tuesday and then stabbed himself four times, Nassau police said.

Ruben Estrada, 46, of 1 Bennett Ct., Copiague, was charged with attempted murder, assault, unlawful imprisonment and possession of a dangerous weapon.

Estrada's 25-year-old ex-girlfriend agreed to meet him Tuesday morning in a parking lot at Carmans Plaza, 943 Carmans Rd., Massapequa, police said. There, Estrada got into the woman's car and attacked her police said, punching her and stabbing her with a knife.

Bystanders were able to get the woman out of the car, a gray Honda CR-V with a shattered rear passenger window, police said, but Estrada then began stabbing himself in the chest.

Bystander Romann Martin, 26, of Farmingdale, said he had rushed to aid the woman. A former Navy reservist, he said he laid the woman on the pavement and applied pressure to her wounds. "I just wanted to make sure her airway was clear," Martin said.

The woman was airlifted to a hospital, police said, and Estrada was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

A police spokeswoman said Tuesday night that both were in critical but stable condition at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

Estrada was to be arraigned in the hospital on the charges at a later date, police said.

With Tania Lopez

and Gary Dymski