For Pamela Cisneros’ family, the horror of the Times Square stabbings was followed by a deeply personal mystery: how did someone they believed had been doing well suddenly end up at the center of a deadly attack?
On Monday, August 31, 2026, NYPD officers fatally shot Pamela Cisneros, from Queens, after police said she stabbed two strangers near Times Square, killing one and injuring another.
The attack claimed the life of Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old Bank of America vice president, and left a 68-year-old man hospitalized. As her relatives began piecing together what happened, they described a woman with a difficult history who had seemed to be doing better for years.
NYPD crime scene investigators worked behind police tape after the violence near Seventh Avenue in Times Square. The police response later drew questions from Cisernos’ family, including her mother’s pointed question about why officers did not grab her by the arm. | Source: Getty Images
The Times Square Attack Unfolded in Minutes
According to ABC7 New York’s report on the incident, Pamela was near West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue at about 4:26 p.m. when police said she attacked two people with knives.
The first victim was a 68-year-old man who had just exited the subway and was waiting with his wife to cross the street. Police said Pamela pulled two knives from a bag, waved them, and stabbed him in the abdomen in what authorities described as a random and unprovoked attack.
The man was from Rhode Island and was believed to be visiting family in New York, according to ABC7 New York. His next-door neighbor, August DiMartino, said the violence was particularly unsettling because it happened to someone from his own community.
Police secured the Times Square scene after the stabbing attack that left one victim dead and another injured. The confrontation ended with officers shooting Pamela Cisneros after attempts to stop her with Tasers failed. | Source: Getty Images
“Absolutely terrible, to just find out that something that horrible can happen to somebody that close to you really makes the community seem vulnerable,” August said.
But the attack was not over. Pamela then continued north along Seventh Avenue. About 20 seconds later, police said, she approached Erin, who was walking near 42nd Street, and stabbed her in the abdomen.
Erin was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she died. The 68-year-old man’s family later told ABC7 that “he seems fine.” He was released from Bellevue Hospital Tuesday afternoon.
After the second stabbing, Pamela continued toward the NYPD substation in Times Square while still carrying both knives.
August DiMartino, the victim’s next-door neighbor, spoke about the attack from his home in Rhode Island, where the news left residents confronting the vulnerability of a tragedy that struck close to their own community. | Source: YouTube/ Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Police Said Pamela Refused to Drop the Knives
Officers confronted her and repeatedly ordered her to put the weapons down. According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the encounter lasted about four minutes.
Pamela refused to comply. “I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you,” Pamela told officers, according to Tisch. Officers deployed Tasers twice, but police said they appeared to have no effect. Pamela continued advancing toward the officers, and two officers fired their service weapons.
She was taken to Bellevue Hospital and pronounced dead.
Police said Pamela had a “documented mental health history” involving contacts with the NYPD in 2018 and 2019. Authorities also said she had no criminal history and described her as emotionally disturbed.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the Times Square violence after police shot Pamela Cisneros during the confrontation. He thanked the responding officers, while the police shooting is subject to an investigation. | Source: Getty Images
Her Brother First Realized It Might Be Pamela
While the police response was unfolding, Pamela’s family had no immediate understanding that the woman in the news was their relative. Her brother, Patrick Peralta, 59, said he learned what had happened after seeing video footage of the confrontation on the news.
In an exclusive Gothamist interview about Pamela’s mental-health struggles and the family’s efforts to understand what happened, Patrick said he initially could not be certain the woman on screen was his sister.
“The first thing in my head was, ‘Oh, no. Is that my sister?’ But then I wasn’t sure. I was hoping it wasn’t her,” Patrick said. More pictures eventually appeared. “But then more pictures went out, and then when I saw a frontal picture, I knew it was her,” he said.
For Patrick, the realization was difficult partly because he said he had never known Pamela to become violent because of her mental-health struggles.
Pamela Had Faced Mental-Health Struggles for Years
Patrick said Pamela’s mental-health problems began more than two decades ago, after the birth of her second daughter. He described what he believed were postpartum depression and bipolar disorder, saying she had been under considerable stress while raising her children.
After the birth of her third daughter, Pamela divorced her husband and moved to Florida with her children, Patrick said. She eventually returned to New York with her second daughter, who was enrolled in a full-time care home in Brooklyn.
Pamela attempted suicide in 2019, according to Patrick. But after that period, he said, her family saw a significant improvement.
Her Family Believed She Had Been Doing Well
Patrick said Pamela’s mental health appeared to improve with medication after 2019. “She was doing well, like for the last four years, five years. She was getting injections. She was never aggressive,” Patrick said.
Pamela lived alone in Woodside and worked on and off with an attorney who specialized in immigration cases. She was also a regular presence at her mother’s home. “She used to come and have dinner, and my mother and my stepfather cooked for her, mainly almost every afternoon and weekends,” Patrick said.
That routine was part of what made the events of late August so difficult for her family to comprehend. Patrick last saw Pamela in early August at a birthday gathering for their stepfather, which Pamela had helped organize. He did not see her again before the attack.
Then Pamela Stopped Showing Up
The family’s concern began with something seemingly ordinary: Pamela stopped coming over. Patrick said she normally visited their mother and stepfather regularly, but she did not come at all during the week before the attack.
“It was weird because she didn’t come at all last week, and we were trying to call her,” Patrick said. The family tried to reach her, but they did not know what was happening. Then, on Saturday, Pamela’s mother spoke with her.
“My sister called her, and then my mother talked to her Saturday, and she said she was fine.”
It was two days before the Times Square stabbings.
Her Father Confirmed She Was Receiving Injections
Pamela’s father, Mario, also spoke about her treatment in an interview with ABC7 New York. “I knew my daughter very well,” he said, “but I didn’t know what was going on with her. What I do know is she was getting injections.”
Mario said he struggled to understand what had happened. “I don’t understand,” he says, “because the situation reversed.” “What she did, it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t click,” he added.
His comments echoed Patrick’s description of a woman whose family believed had been doing well before the events in Times Square.
Police tape and barricades marked off part of Times Square after the Monday afternoon stabbing disrupted the busy Midtown district. The scene remained under investigation after two people were stabbed, including 32-year-old Erin Piacenti. | Source: Getty Images
Patrick Described It as a Sudden Change
After watching part of the video of Pamela’s confrontation with police, Patrick said he was unsure what officers could have done differently once the situation had reached that point.
“When it gets to that point, it’s kinda late … to talk to a person, you know?” he said. But when asked, in effect, how Pamela could have gone from years of apparent stability to what happened in Times Square, Patrick could only describe the change as abrupt.
“It was like a switch, and I don’t know what happened in her mind,” he said. Pamela’s mother, Maria, also questioned the police response. “There were so many police. Why didn’t they grab her by the arm?” she asked, according to Fox 5 New York’s report.
Police secured parts of the Times Square area as the response to the Aug. 31 stabbings unfolded along Seventh Avenue. The two attacks occurred about 20 seconds apart, according to police. | Source: Getty Images
A Taser Expert Explained Why the Devices May Have Failed
The questions about the police response came as more details emerged about the failed attempts to stop Pamela with Tasers. Retired NYPD detective and Taser expert Artur Sadowski told the New York Post that Tasers require both probes to make effective contact and complete an electrical circuit that can temporarily disrupt muscle control.
According to Artur’s assessment, one probe struck the purse wrapped around Pamela’s body, while another appeared to hit her stomach. “She may have felt pain or muscle cramping in her abdomen but not enough to stop her from advancing,” Artur said.
Police ultimately said two officers fired their guns after the Tasers failed to stop Pamela as she continued advancing with the knives.
Police later displayed an image of knives recovered at the scene as investigators detailed the deadly encounter. The weapons became a key part of the investigation into the attack and the officers’ response. | Source: Getty Images
A Post From Months Earlier Added Another Layer
Another detail surfaced from months before the attack. In a lengthy Facebook post dated November 30, 2025, Pamela wrote about what she believed were signs of “the end times.” Among them, she cited “the disminished [sic] love of people to the point of stabbing others for no reason.”
Later in the same post, Pamela wrote that “the battlefield is in your mind” and referred to people hearing voices telling them “to either kill someone or themselves.” She attributed those thoughts to Satan and urged readers to reject them and turn to God.
The post does not establish what was happening in Pamela’s life at the time of the Times Square attack, nor does it explain what prompted her actions on August 31. But viewed alongside her family’s account, it has become another unsettling detail in a story her relatives are still trying to piece together.
Pamela’s Family Said They Never Saw This Coming
Patrick said he had never known Pamela to harm anyone other than herself before the Times Square attack. His family had known about her struggles, but they believed she had been doing better for years. Her regular visits, work and apparent stability had become part of their normal lives.
That made the violence even harder for them to comprehend. “We really don’t know how to express or how to explain why this happened,” Patrick said in his interview with Gothamist. “Nothing that we can say is going to bring the person back. We feel their pain, too.”
While Pamela’s family searched for answers, Erin’s loved ones were left grieving a life that had been moving forward.
Pamela Cisneros’ Family Says Her Sudden Change Led to Questions After Times Square Stabbings Read More
