Victims, suspect identified in deadly Times Square stabbings, shooting
ByEyewitness News
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 3:25AM
Brian Shlonsky has the latest on the victims.
MIDTOWN (WABC) –The victims stabbed and the suspect who was shot by police in Times Square on Monday have been identified
Police say 32-year-old Erin Piacenti died at the hospital. The other victim, a 68-year-old man, was hospitalized at Bellevue, but was released late Tuesday afternoon
The NYPD said they were stabbed in a “random and unprovoked” attack by 39-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens
According to investigators, Cisneros was threatening people with two knives near West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue around 4:26 p.m. on Monday and stabbed the male victim and Piacenti
Cisneros refused to drop the knives when officers approached, according to police
Officers fired, striking her, police said
Two knives were recovered from the scene The NYPD also released a photo of the recovered weapons
The first victim, the 68-year-old man, had just exited the subway and was waiting to cross the street with his wife when the suspect pulled the knives from a bag, waved them and then allegedly stabbed him in the abdomen “in what appears to be a random and unprovoked attack,” Tisch said at a press briefing
The suspect then went up Seventh Avenue toward 42nd Street, where she approached the second victim, Piacenti, who was similarly stabbed in the abdomen in an apparently random, unprovoked attack, Tisch said
The suspect allegedly then fled north toward the NYPD substation, authorities said. Witnesses flagged down officers who confronted her for four minutes and “gave her numerous commands to drop the knife,” which she refused, Tisch said
“During the encounter, she told the officers, ‘I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.’ She repeated, ‘I will kill you,'” Tisch said
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Anthony Carlo spoke to the father of the suspect, Pamela Cisneros.
Officers deployed tasers twice before two officers discharged their service weapons, Tisch said
Cisneros was pronounced dead at a hospital. She had a “documented mental health history,” Tisch said
“I knew it was mental health issues. That’s a big epidemic out here, bro. We gotta get that under control,” Clyde Benjamin, who works in Times Square, said
Police say Erin Piacenti worked at Bank of America as vice president of business selection and conflicts, per her social media. Bank of America released a statement:
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones.”
She graduated University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and Fordham Law in 2021, per her social media
The 68-year-old victim is from Rhode Island, and was believed to be in New York visiting family
His next-door neighbor, August Dimartino, can’t believe it
“Absolutely terrible, to just find out that something that horrible can happen to somebody that close to you really makes the community seem vulnerable,” DiMartino said
Eyewitness News spoke to the 68-year-old’s family on the phone Tuesday. They didn’t want to be interviewed, but said, “he seems fine.”
Police say Cisneros had numerous prior hospitalizations and two interactions with officers
In one, she was acting drunk, screaming and was belligerent at a hotel on Lexington Avenue in 2018
In the other, police say she jumped onto the E train line in Queens and was pulled up by a good Samaritan
The NYPD will conduct an internal investigation and body-worn camera footage will be released to the public, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said
Some information from ABC News
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