NYPD Kills Pamela Cisneros After 2 Times Square Stabbings Leave 1 Dead

Q: What connects a knife-wielding woman and an armed teenager during the chaotic Times Square melee?

They appear to be linked by the same broader Times Square disturbance: a violent, fast-moving confrontation near the Times Square–42nd Street area that involved both a stabbing or slashing and gunfire, with police still sorting out exactly how the pieces fit together. The knife-wielding woman comes from witness accounts and online video tied to the officer-involved shooting investigation at West 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue. In that footage, a woman appears to be holding a knife and moving toward officers before shots are fired. Separately, multiple reports on the Times Square melee say a 26-year-old man was slashed and a 17-year-old was taken into custody after allegedly firing shots during the chaos. Police also recovered at least one weapon. What connects them, based on the available reporting, is not a confirmed personal relationship or a proven joint motive. Rather, both figures emerged from the same episode of public violence in and around Times Square, where witnesses described crowds running, police pursuing suspects, and at least one stabbing and one shooting scare unfolding within minutes of each other. Authorities have not yet publicly established whether the woman with the knife and the armed teenager were acting together, whether the slashing directly triggered the gunfire, or whether there were multiple suspects in overlapping incidents. The NYPD has said the case remains under investigation, and that uncertainty is the key fact.

3 articles · Updated · WPVI-TV · Sep 2

Erin Piacenti, 32, a Bank of America vice president from New Jersey, died after being stabbed in the abdomen in what NYPD called a random, unprovoked Times Square attack; a 68-year-old man remained in critical but stable condition.
Police said Pamela Cisneros threatened people with two knives near West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue around 4:26 p.m., stabbed the man, then Piacenti, and fled toward an NYPD substation.
Four minutes from the substation, officers gave repeated orders to drop the knives, used Tasers twice, and then shot Cisneros after she allegedly said, "I'm not dropping anything" and threatened to kill them.
Two knives were recovered, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the NYPD will investigate internally and release body-camera footage.
Tisch said Cisneros had a documented mental health history, putting renewed focus on mental illness and public safety in one of New York's busiest, most heavily policed areas.