By themselves, the crimes last week were brutal and horrifyingly random: The assisant manager of a popular Haleiwa market assaulted on the job, his neck violently slashed; and an 80-year-old woman kicked in the face and knocked to the ground while waiting at a downtown bus stop in early morning.

What made the separate attacks especially disturbing were the cirumstances of the suspects: two very troubled men with histories of violence, criminal records, mental health issues and homelessness. Both suspects now remain in custody in lieu of bail — but there must be reassessment, and improvement, of a system that allowed these situations.

On April 18, Jerry Pedro, 52, an assistant manager at Malama Market in Haleiwa, was attacked during his afternoon shift. Stabbed and slashed at the neck, he was hospitalized in serious condition and underwent surgery. He is, luckily, recovering in stable condition.

John F. Mayhew, 54, was indicted Tuesday on attempted second-degree murder in the case. He has a long criminal record that includes terroristic threatening, harassment, abuse of a household member, assaults and criminal trespassing. Released from prison last December after serving 5-1/2 years for an assault conviction, he criminally trespassed March 27 into a Haleiwa home, for which he was sentenced April 6 to a year’s probation.

In court records related to a terroristic threatening case, a mental health court panel indicated Mayhew has schizophrenia. During last week’s attack on Pedro, court documents say, Mayhew repeatedly called him “a vampire.”

Adding to concerns about confinement and oversight of violent, mentally ill offenders is the other attack, just a day before the Haleiwa incident. The brutal beating at a downtown bus stop of the elderly woman, 80, left her in critical condition.

Suspect Steven I. Ho has convictions in the 1980s for felony burglary, robbery and kidnapping and for a 2006 misdemeanor assault. Among his record: After being charged in June 2015 with another misdemeanor assault, two District Court judges had him removed from their courtrooms three separate times for disruptive behavior. In October 2015, Ho was court-committed to the Hawaii State Hospital for treatment after being found not mentally fit to stand trial; a month later the health director’s request to involuntarily medicate him was granted. Without his medication, he was aggressive and threatening, the director said, and had punched a hospital staffer in the face and had assaulted other inmates and staff while in jail.

It’s unclear how long Ho had been out in the community, other than correspondence in early October suggesting that he could be released sometime after Oct. 28. Asked this week why and when Ho was released from the State Hospital, given his history of violence and mental issues, a Department of Health spokeswoman said privacy laws prevent disclosure of details.

“We recognize there is concern about Hawaii Department of Health’s role in public safety in these types of situations,” acknowledged DOH’s Janice Okubo. But she added: “We also cannot hold people indefinitely in the hospital given Hawaii laws.”

Okubo said hospital staffers are “extremely committed” and use a detailed process in evaluating patients before any release from the State Hospital into appropriate community-based care. For any patient at the time of release, she said, he must be deemed not a danger to himself or others.

There is some hope on the horizon with a revamped State Hospital finally in the works to ease overcrowding and better meet growing community needs. That would be the core of an improved system that also builds up community-based services including transitional housing, job training and treatment facilities.

Clearly, though, there’s a breakdown of the public safety net when innocent people are so viciously harmed, allegedly by suspects with histories of criminality and mental instability. For all the important focus on maintaining a social safety net for society’s less fortunate, there also must be better tracking and oversight of troubled people, particularly those with records of violence.