The homeless madman accused of slashing five people with a dagger in Penn Station was roaming free despite an arrest just weeks earlier in New Jersey and a conviction for an eerily similar stabbing.

Hector Deleon, 51, was quickly released on cashless bail after his 2022 arrest for slashing a man in the neck in Newark — and then received just two years of probation as a sentence, court records show.

Deleon doesn’t appear to have spent any significant time behind bars in that case or in the years that followed, even as he racked up more arrests — including one just two weeks before Sunday night’s rampage.

The stabbing spree in the busy Midtown commuter hub around 7 p.m. left five people bloodied, with one seriously injured, FDNY officials said.

The victims included Henry Obadiah, 60, who said the disheveled Deleon had “rage in his eyes” as he clocked him in the face.

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“I didn’t realize I had just been slashed in the face,” the straphanger recalled to The Post on Monday.

Amtrak police said the knife-wielding suspect entered Penn Station from the street “right before the attack” before slashing the innocent victims inside the NJ Transit Concourse area.

He “was quickly located and apprehended following the initial attack,” the department said in a statement.

The alleged slasher was so crazed that he fought the officers and required sedation just to wrangle him into an ambulance, law-enforcement sources said. 

He had not yet been officially charged by Monday afternoon as he remained hospitalized under heavy sedation, the sources said.

Court records and sources show Deleon’s criminal record is streaked with violence. 

His at least seven prior arrests – six of which unfolded in New Jersey – include busts for aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, use or possession of drugs, assault, domestic assault and criminal mischief. 

Before the attack at Penn Station, Deleon was most recently busted May 22 in Long Branch, New Jersey for theft and possession of drug paraphernalia charges.

Deleon was accused of stealing $4 in coins from a tip jar inside a Dunkin Donut  and possessing a “clear glass pipe with a burnt brown color,” court records show.

Sources said a wild-eyed, scraggly haired Deleon used a “boot dagger” — or a double-edged blade about six inches in length — during the deranged, drugged-up attack at Penn Station.

The shocking spree came just roughly 24 hours before President Trump’s attendance at nearby Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the Knicks’ historic NBA Finals appearance against the San Antonio Spurs.

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.

The dagger, which had a 4- to 6-inch blade that sources said was recovered from the Penn Station incident appeared similar to the one Deleon used in the gruesome Feb. 8, 2022 stabbing in Newark.

Officials said he used a 6-inch knife with a black or gray handle to slash a man, who wasn’t publicly identified, in the neck on Frelinghuysen Avenue after the pair got into an argument, according to the criminal complaint.

The man told Deleon he was not allowed on the property because he stole things, the papers state.

“The actor (Deleon) then became (enraged) and pulled out a 6 inch knife with a black/gray handle,” the complaint states, “stabbing the victim once on the left side of his neck.”

The victim landed in the trauma ward, where he received nine stitches to close the wound on the left side of his neck, according to the complaint.

Deleon was arrested Feb. 14, 2022, on charges of aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and held in jail before a court hearing, a New Jersey court spokesperson said.

He was released four days later under the state’s cashless bail system, with a variety of conditions, the spokesperson said.

Records show Deleon pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on April 10, 2023. 

During his June 19, 2023, sentencing he received two years of probation with conditions he perform 100 hours of community service and continue mental health treatment, the records show.

Before Deleon’s probation ended March 6, he racked up a probation violation in 2024, the court spokesperson said. What offense led to the probation violation was unclear.

Deleon also appeared to have been arrested at least two times while he was on probation, including for another alleged act of violence. 

Records show Deleon faces an active assault and criminal mischief case from 2025 in Newark. A court spokesperson wouldn’t release records because it related to domestic violence. He was scheduled to appear in court June 24 for that case.

Deleon was also arrested July 30, 2025, for possession of a crack pipe, records show.

Straphangers told The Post Monday they were disturbed by the random burst of violence at Penn Station, which left splatters of blood on the floor of the boarding area.

The incident came roughly two months after another disturbing attack in a New York City transit hub. Machete-wielding nut Anthony Griffin, 44, slashed three straphangers and called himself “Lucifer” before police shot him dead April 11 inside the station.

Marina Berger, 21, an advertising intern from New Jersey, said the latest incident frightened her, particularly as a solo female traveler wary of “creepy people” in the subway.

“It’s definitely very upsetting to hear, especially as a young woman who’s just recently going to have to commute to the city pretty often — and I definitely think there should be better security measures put in place,” she said.

Deleon’s daughter declined to comment to The Post.

– Additional reporting by Amanda Woods, Kevin Sheehan and Chris Nesi