Woman killed in Times Square stabbing worked for Bank of America

NEW YORK (AP) — The woman killed in a random stabbing in Times Square was a Bank of America employee, the bank confirmed Tuesday. Police identified her and the attacker, who was killed in a confrontation with officers shortly after the rampage.

The woman who died, Erin Piacenti, 32, was one of two people who were stabbed Monday afternoon in the tourist and theater hub, a few blocks from Bank of America’s office tower in New York.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague,” the bank said in a statement. The company didn’t immediately answer questions about the specifics of Piacenti’s work there.

She had earned a law degree from Fordham Law School, graduating in 2021 alongside her husband, Frank Piacenti, according to the school. Fordham Law said in a statement it was heartbroken by her death.

Messages were left with possible phone numbers and contacts for her relatives.

The other victim was a 68-year-old man whose identity hasn’t been released. He was hospitalized, and no update on his condition was immediately available Tuesday.

Police identified the attacker Tuesday as Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens. Officers shot and killed her after the stabbing.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has said the woman had mental-health-related encounters with police in 2018 and 2019 but had no arrest record in New York City.

Cisneros’ brother, Patrick Peralta, told the New York news outlet Gothamist that she had psychiatric problems for decades but wasn’t aggressive. The divorced mother of three had been taking medications and doing better in the last several years, working on and off in a legal office, according to Peralta, who said he last saw her at a relative’s birthday gathering early last month. He said Cisneros skipped family dinners last week but assured their mother she was OK in a phone call Saturday.

Then he saw Monday’s news from Times Square.

“We really don’t know how to express or how to explain why this happened,” Peralta told Gothamist, expressing sympathy for Piacenti’s family and the injured man.

The Associated Press left messages at phone numbers for Cisneros’ relatives.

The attack happened in one of the busiest and most heavily policed areas in New York — next to a police station and just outside the building that hosts the city’s annual New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration. A man was fatally stabbed in the same area in May.

Cisneros pulled two knives from a shopping bag, stabbed the man, and then attacked Piacenti, Tisch said at a news conference Monday.

Bystander videos recorded police gathering around Cisneros as she held two large knives in front of her. Then, as they used a stun gun on her, she waved the knives and walked quickly toward the officers, the video showed.

Tisch said officers tried to persuade Cisneros to drop the knives for several minutes before they used the stun gun. She told them she wouldn’t drop anything and “would rather kill” the officers, according to Tisch.

Two officers then shot Cisneros, according to police.

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This story has been corrected to give the correct spelling of the surname of the woman who died. It is Piacenti, not Pacenti.