The homeless man who just slashed a woman in the neck in SoHo had been in and out of about 36 mental-health hearings for the violent 2019 robbery of a 13-year-old boy — and later slugged an NYPD worker so badly that he broke her eye socket, sources said Tuesday.

Muslim Brunson, 46, is facing charges of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree for Monday’s random horrific attack in the tony Manhattan neighborhood featuring designer shops such as Gucci and Prada, police said.

Brunson, who police say is homeless, was previously arrested several times, including in July 2022 for assaulting the female civilian Police Department worker, leaving her with the broken facial bones, law-enforcement sources said.

“When do we admit that we can’t keep giving chance after chance?” a frustrated law-enforcement source told The Post on Tuesday.

In the 2022 crime, police at the time said Brunson shoved the woman into a subway pole on a No. 4 train at the Fulton Street station so hard that her eye socket and cheekbone were fractured.

As the brute was being apprehended, he then kicked an arresting officer near his right knee, “causing substantial pain,” and spit at the cops, court papers said.

He ended up with a felony assault rap for the cop assault — a charge wrapped into the 2022 subway-shove case, sources said.

“This is buy one, get one free justice,” the law enforcement source said. “The ADA gets an easy felony win. Defense attorney gets to be a hero, and the judge gets to move the case off the docket.

Timeline of a ticking time bomb

• Aug. 17, 2019: A 911 call is made involving Muslim Brunson, with him hearing voices and wanting to harm others, according to law enforcement sources. He is taken to Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

• Sept. 17, 2019: Brunson accosts a 13-year-old straphanger on a Brooklyn subway, robbing the kid of his iPhone and shoving him off the train when he tries to fight back. Brunson is freed under a special no-jail program that instead mandates mental health treatment — then goes before a judge 36 times over the next three years to ensure he is complying.

• Dec. 9, 2020: Brunson is reportedly hearing voices telling him to harm others and is transported to Beth Israel.

• Dec. 16, 2020: He is hearing voices telling him to hurt other people and to not take his medication and is taken to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, sources said.

• June 18, 2022: Another EDP report involving Brunson is made, saying he needs medication. He is taken to Beth Israel.

• July 4, 2022: Brunson violently shoves a female civilian NYPD employee on the subway, breaking her eye socket, sources said.

• July 6, 2022: He is tracked down by cops in the subway system for the crime and proceeds to kick one of the arresting officers near the right knee and spit on police, netting another felony assault rap. Brunson is booted from the mental health program, his 2019 and 2022 cases are rolled into one and he is convicted and starts serving a year behind bars.

• Aug. 18, 2023: Brunson is released from prison.

• Jan. 24, 2024: He is accused of public lewdness.

• Feb. 18, 2024: Brunson’s parole ends.

• April 7: He allegedly throws a glass bottle at a woman on the street in Soho, then picks up shards and slashes another female passer-by in the neck, critically wounding her.

“But none of these people consider the risk to public safety.”

A few years earlier, on Sept. 17, 2019, Brunson also swiped an iPhone from a 13-year-old straphanger on a Queens-bound C train between Liberty and Van Siclen avenues in Brooklyn, and when his victim fought back, he shoved the boy off the train, sources said.

Brunson landed $2,500 bail a month later for the Brooklyn theft and assault and was then released on his own recognizance a few months later. It’s unclear why he was freed, sources said.

The suspect has been the subject of at least four interactions with authorities over the years regarding an “emotionally disturbed person,” sources said.

In August 2019, a month before his subway attack on the young teen, a 911 call was made involving Brunson, with him hearing voices and wanting to harm others, according to sources.

Brunson was taken to Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan but released again, sources said.

He then committed the subway robbery — yet was still allowed to spend the next several years roaming the streets thanks to an alternative-to-jail-time program.

He ended up going in and out of mental-health court for compliance and other hearings as part of the program — making around 36 appearances, sources said.

The hearings are designed to ensure participants “adhere to treatment mandates, which may include mental health treatment, substance use treatment, intensive community-based case management, educational/vocational services, and supportive housing,” according to the 2024 Brooklyn Mental Health Court fact sheet.

In the first three months alone under the program, participants must appear in court once a week.

The hearings are open to the public, where defendants speak about their progression in the program. They generally carry a mandatory prison sentence if the defendant fails to complete them.

While Brunson was in the program, at least three more 911 calls came in about him.

They included one Dec. 9, 2020, when he was reportedly hearing voices in his head telling him to harm others, sources said.

He was transported to Beth Israel and released, only to be picked up again a week later while hearing voices telling him to hurt other people and to not take his medication, sources said. Brunson was taken to Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx and eventually released.

Then June 18, 2022, another EDP report involving Brunson was made, saying he needed medication. He was taken to Beth Israel and released.

Less than a month later, on July 4, 2022, he violently shoved the off-duty NYPD employee, sources said.

Brunson was then sentenced to a total of one to three years in prison for his crimes because of non-compliance in the mental-health program in the Brooklyn case.

He spent less than a year locked up, mainly at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate Ossining, before being released in August 2023.

He got off parole in February 2024 — although not before being pinched for public lewdness a month earlier, sources said. That case is sealed.

Then Monday, he was back in handcuffs — this time for the brutal SoHo attack.

“It was two violent crimes,” a source said of Brunson’s priors. “We’re so worried about the offender, we forget about the people of New York City.

“What kind of resources were put into this [mental health] program?” the source said. How do we have accountability for these alternative programs? And it’s the victims, unfortunately, that show us the failures of these programs.”

The most recent attack allegedly involving Brunson unfolded around 3 p.m. Monday in ritzy SoHo.

Cops say Brunson smashed a glass bottle before creeping up behind Megan Berg, a 25-year-old off-Broadway costume designer originally from Arizona, on the corner of Wooster and Broome streets and attacking her with the broken shards.

“I just heard her scream,” a worker from the nearby hip Yohji Yamamoto clothing shop told The Post on Tuesday.

Berg was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where she underwent surgery but was said to be conscious and alert, NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy said during a briefing Monday.

McCarthy, the commanding officer in Manhattan, said police believe mental illness may have been a factor in the unprovoked assault, but authorities were still investigating.

Leading up to the bloody slashing, the suspect threw the bottle at another woman, 29, and then picked up the pieces to target the 25-year-old victim, authorities said.

The 29-year-old was not injured in the incident.

Brunson, who allegedly provided cops with a fake name and was wearing a navy sweatshirt with the NYPD logo on it, was soon apprehended near the scene, police and law enforcement sources said.