Victims, suspect identified in deadly Times Square stabbings, shooting

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, is hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

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 Wednesday and stabbed the male victim and Piacenti.

She then fled north toward the NYPD substation in Times Square, where officers confronted her, police said. 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, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 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.

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.

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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