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The knife-wielding maniac who injured five people in a random rampage at Penn Station had “rage in his eyes,” one of the victims recalled Monday — detailing a horrifying encounter that unfolded so quickly, he didn’t even realize he had been slashed.

“He went at me to kill me! I saw the rage in his eyes,” Henry Obadiah, 60, an accountant who lives in Midtown and was heading home from Long Branch, New Jersey, told The Post of the chilling, Sunday night attack.

Obadiah found himself in the frenzied path of the alleged homeless attacker — identified by law enforcement sources as Hector Deleon, 51 — as he noticed two people tussling while making his way toward the station.

Henry Obadiah, 60, an accountant from Long Branch, New Jersey, was among the victims in Sunday’s attack. Obtained by NY Post
Obadiah was slashed in the face by the suspect, Hector Deleon. Obtained by NY Post


  The alleged homeless attacker was identified by law enforcement sources as 51-year-old Hector Deleon (above). NEW YORK POST The alleged homeless attacker was identified by law enforcement sources as 51-year-old Hector Deleon (above). NEW YORK POST

“The crazy guy locked his eyes on me and just roundhoused me! Clocked me right in the face and I was like, ‘What the f–k?’ And I heard the guy on the escalator say, ‘He’s got a knife! He’s got a knife!’

“I didn’t realize I had just been slashed in the face,” he recalled.

Obadiah said he assumed he was just sucker-punched — until he saw the gash on his face when he looked at his reflection on his phone.

“I thought he just punched me. I felt my lip got busted and I saw the blood, but I took a look into my phone and saw the big cut in my face and I just ran up to the cop and said, ‘I just got attacked,’” he said.

Obadiah was one of five victims slashed or stabbed during the rampage in the bustling Midtown transit hub around 7 p.m.


  The attack at Penn Station left five people injured. William C Lopez/NY Post The attack at Penn Station left five people injured. William C Lopez/NY Post

  The Post’s front cover story about the madman’s rampage inside Penn Station.
 The Post’s front cover story about the madman’s rampage inside Penn Station.

The senseless carnage left at least one victim seriously wounded, two with moderate injuries and two others with minor injuries, FDNY officials said.

Sources said besides Obadiah’s laceration to his cheek, a 52-year-old man and a 60-year-old man suffered cuts to their necks. 

A 30-year-old man and a 42-year-old man, a tourist, were also wounded, the sources said.

After Obadiah told the cops he could identify his attacker, he walked with police along a “huge trail of blood” leading to the New Jersey Transit boarding area, where he saw another victim who appeared to be in his 20s seated on the floor holding a bloody towel up to a gushing head wound as strangers tried to attend to him.

“The paramedics showed up shortly thereafter. While they were telling me that they should take me to the hospital, all these cops started running past and screaming, ‘He stabbed someone else! He stabbed someone else!’”


  A stabbing victim getting rushed out of Penn Station. Meredith Gorman/Fox5 A stabbing victim getting rushed out of Penn Station. Meredith Gorman/Fox5

Amtrak police arrested Deleon, who appeared under the influence of still-unidentified drugs, in Penn Station, sources said.

The wild-eyed, disheveled Deleon had a “boot dagger” — or a double-sided blade about six inches in length – that he used to carry out his unhinged spree, sources said.


  Blood and medical supplies on the floor of Penn Station. William C Lopez/NY Post Blood and medical supplies on the floor of Penn Station. William C Lopez/NY Post

Deleon had a long criminal record streaked with violence, including an aggravated assault conviction from an eerily similar 2022 attack in which he stabbed a man in the neck with a 6-inch knife, records show. 

The apparently unstable con received just two years of probation for that attack – and had been arrested as recently as May in New Jersey on theft and drug paraphernalia possession charges, records show.

Obadiah slammed the state of transit safety in the Big Apple, and the Mamdani administration’s response to it.

“Something has to be done. The city is getting worse and worse and no one seems to care. This administration? Law and order isn’t the priority! The attackers have more rights than the victims. It’s not surprising that this happened and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change under this administration,” he said.

“Most people are voting for this stuff and they’re voting for, ‘Let’s get rid of the police, the police got to stand down,’ it’s nuts! I want it to change, but not only for me but for the next victim of a crazy homeless guy that decides he had a bad day and he’s going to kill a few people.”

The suspected attacker was said to be hospitalized Monday and had yet to be charged.

— Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Matt Troutman

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