On Monday, August 31, a woman stabbed two random people in Times Square; one of them was Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America employee, who died from her injuries.
This Tuesday, police identified the attacker as Pamela Cisneros, who was shot and killed by officers after the stabbing.
Pamela Cisneros was 49 and a resident of Queens, a borough of New York City.
The attacker died at the hands of the police, who shot her after refusing to drop the two knives with which she attacked her victims and also threatening the officers, according to Commissioner Jessica Tisch in a press conference after the incident.
Tisch claimed the woman had a history of mental health issues and had encounters with police related to those conditions in 2018 and 2019, but had no arrest record in New York City.
The attack took place in one of the busiest areas with the largest police presence in New York: next to a police station and just outside the building where the city’s annual New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration takes place. A man was fatally stabbed in the same area in May.
Cisneros pulled two knives from a shopping bag, stabbed a man and then attacked the Bank of America employee.
Videos recorded by bystanders recorded police surrounding Cisneros as she held two large knives in front of her. Then, as they tasered him, he waved the knives and walked quickly toward the officers, according to the video.
Tisch said officers tried to persuade Cisneros for several minutes to drop the knives before using the stun gun. According to Tisch, she told them she wouldn’t say anything and that she would “rather kill” the officers.
