A woman with a history of mental health issues went on a stabbing spree yesterday in Times Square. She stabbed two people, one of whom died, before police shot her.
The mayhem erupted just before 4:30 p.m…the woman, Pamela Cisneros, 49, walked up to a 68-year-old man who had just exited the subway with his wife. The couple were waiting to cross the street at West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue when Ms. Cisneros pulled the knives from a red Target bag, stabbed the man on the side of his abdomen and headed toward 42nd Street…
The fatal stabbing came less than 20 seconds later, the police said. Aliou Dieye, a vendor who sells sunglasses and ball caps, said he saw the assailant holding a knife and approaching another woman right in front of his stand.
“She didn’t say nothing,” Mr. Dieye, 62, said. “She walked up to her. She stabbed her in the stomach.”
Mr. Dieye said that the victim fell to the sidewalk and that he and a friend called 911 as the stabber headed north.
The woman who was killed was identified as Erin Piacenti. She was only 32 years old.
Piacenti was employed by Bank of America in New York City, working as the Vice President of Business Selection and Conflicts, sources told The Post.
She was a 2016 graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and 2021 graduate of Fordham Law School, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The successful career woman had also just celebrated her second wedding anniversary on Aug. 10, according to social media posts.
Here’s a photo of Piacenti that is circulating online.
🇺🇸 A 32-year-old Bank of America vice president was stabbed to death in an unprovoked Times Square attack just weeks after celebrating her second wedding anniversary.
Erin Piacenti was stabbed in the abdomen Monday after 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros had already wounded a… https://t.co/XDbWr4rt66 pic.twitter.com/kyGMXRS0KF
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) September 1, 2026
After the second stabbing Pamela Cisneros walked another block to a spot where there was a police substation. Police spent several minutes trying to get her to drop the knives she held in each hand and when she refused they tried to tase her twice. Those efforts failed and Cisneros began moving toward the officers so they shot her. Here’s one angle.
A woman reportedly confronted NYPD officers while holding two knives, shortly after she allegedly stabbed multiple people, according to police reports. The scene remains active.
pic.twitter.com/9xsuT2x6Of— Citizen NYC (@CitizenAppNYC) August 31, 2026
As you can hear, the person filming immediately says “They didn’t need to shoot her.” And people on X were offering similar reactions. This guy is a lawyer and a “police misconduct advocate.”
This shooting is deeply troubling.
Whatever crimes this woman may have committed against others in Times Square, these officers had time and distance.
That matters.
The job is to protect life and property, not simply end a difficult encounter with gunfire.
NYPD officers are…
— Eric Sanders, Esq. (@esq_sanders) August 31, 2026
NYPD officers are trained in de-escalation, containment, crisis intervention, and graduated force. So where was it?
Where was the ASP? The OC spray? The effort to distract, contain, or physically control her?
She was clearly in crisis. The officers had space. They had backup. They had options.
Deadly force should not become the default because someone is dangerous, irrational, or difficult to control.
Based on what is visible, I have a serious problem with this shooting.
Here’s what that genius didn’t see or hear in this video clip. Officers spent several minutes trying to get her to drop the knives and she said she wanted to kill them instead.
JUST IN: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says officers spent four minutes ordering the knife-wielding Times Square suspect to drop her weapons before she allegedly threatened them, repeating, “I will kill you.”
Tisch says multiple officers deployed Tasers as the woman continued… pic.twitter.com/2APGUkZx0e
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 1, 2026
Here’s another angle on the shooting.
Footage shows the NYPD tasing a woman armed with a knife yesterday.
NYPD officers repeatedly tased a woman armed with 2 knives after police say she randomly stabbed 2 people, killing a 32 year old woman and seriously wounding a 68 year old man.
The Tasers failed to stop her.…
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 1, 2026
There’s nothing “deeply troubling” about this use of force. This was 100 percent justified under these circumstances. The officers tried to get her to drop the knives, they tried to tase her. She threatened to kill them and moved forward. At that point, the officer she was approaching shot her.
But BLM has convinced a lot of people that every shooting by police is a murder, so if you check the reactions there are lots of people second guessing what happened. Some of them were even saying she never hurt anyone (because they didn’t know she’d already stabbed two strangers). Some were saying police should have shot her in the leg (but if a bullet misses and bounces off the pavement, where does it go?). Some were saying the knives looked small (again, she murdered a woman moments earlier). Lots of armchair quarterbacks with nothing on the line.
Even Mamdani got this one right. It’s a very low bar but he cleared it by thanking the NYPD for stopping this attack before it got worse.
TIMES SQUARE KNIFE ATTACK LEAVES 2 DEAD — PERPETRATOR DIES & STABBED VICTIM SUCCUMBS AT HOSPITAL
NYC Mayor Mamdani THANKS NYPD OFFICERS for stopping attack from ‘BECOMING WORSE’ https://t.co/0JTc8vREAq pic.twitter.com/5Lo2bPFDjt
— RT (@RT_com) September 1, 2026
Hopefully this is the last we hear about this. But in NYC you never really know. My sympathies go out to the family of Erin Piacenti.
Bank of America Vice President Erin Piacenti, 32, was killed after police say a knife-wielding woman randomly stabbed two people in Times Square. The suspect, identified as Pamela Cisneros of Queens, allegedly first stabbed a 68-year-old man near Seventh Avenue before attacking… https://t.co/NaiouLiGUA pic.twitter.com/JcggwzLKhq
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 1, 2026
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