Homeless Man’s Penn Station Stabbing Rampage Wasn’t His First Attack

The homeless man accused of attacking six men at Penn Station was a repeat offender who had committed a similar stabbing and was arrested for another crime just weeks earlier, according to a new report.

Hector Deleon, 51, stabbed six men at Penn Station on Monday, the night before President Donald Trump arrived for the New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, which sits just above the station. The victims were hospitalized and all are expected to survive. 

According to the New York Post, Deleon committed a similar crime in Newark on February 8, 2022. During an argument with another man who said Deleon wasn’t permitted on his property due to thieving tendencies, Deleon pulled out a six-inch knife and stabbed the man on the left side of his neck. 

The victim was placed in the trauma ward, receiving nine stitches. Deleon was arrested on February 14, 2022, and charged with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and was held in jail before a court hearing. Deleon was released four days later on a cashless bail system under several conditions. 

In another incident on April 10, 2023, Deleon pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to two years of probation with conditions that he perform 100 hours of community service and undergo mental health treatments, per the Post. Deleon violated his probation in 2024 and was arrested at least two more times. One of the arrests included an alleged act of violence. 

Deleon still faces an active assault and criminal mischief case from 2025 over a domestic violence incident. Just six days after his scheduled appearance in court, Deleon was arrested on June 30, 2025, for possessing a crack pipe. 

His most recent arrest took place on May 22, 2026. Deleon was caught stealing and in possession of drug paraphernalia, after he stole $4 worth of coins from a tip jar and was holding a pipe with a “burnt brown color.”

The repeat offender was described as having “rage in his eyes” when he allegedly slashed six men at Penn Station, one of the victims, Henry Obadiah, said. 

Deleon was so crazed and “drugged-up” that he had to be sedated before he was “wrangled” into the ambulance, the Post reported. 

He has not been officially charged yet due to hospitalization under heavy sedation.