Bank of America Employee Identified as Victim in Times Square Stabbing

Erin Piacenti was 32 years old, a lawyer who worked for Bank of America, and she was visiting Times Square on a Monday afternoon when a woman she had never met pulled two knives from her pocket and stabbed her in the abdomen. Piacenti, who lived in Chester, New Jersey, died from her injuries. The woman who attacked her was Pamela Cisneros, 49, who also stabbed a 68-year-old man from Rhode Island during what police described as a random assault in the middle of the city.

Cisneros had come to Times Square armed with two knives and no apparent target. She attacked Piacenti and the older man without provocation or prior connection to either of them. The man, who had been visiting his son in Brooklyn with his wife, survived the attack and remained hospitalized in stable condition. When uniformed officers arrived at the scene, they found Cisneros still holding both knives.

What followed was a four-minute encounter between police and Cisneros that ended with officers firing their weapons and killing her. During those minutes, officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the knives. She refused. According to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Cisneros told the officers she would not surrender her weapons and threatened to kill them both, repeating the threat multiple times. Officers deployed Tasers, but the devices did not incapacitate her. When she advanced toward the officers while still holding the knives, two officers fired, and Cisneros was killed. Both knives were recovered at the scene.

Piacenti's death reverberated through the institutions where she had studied and worked. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and earned her law degree from Fordham University, where her husband Frank also graduated in 2021. Fordham released a statement describing her as a cherished member of their law school community. Bank of America called her a valued teammate and said the loss was shocking and deeply saddening to the organization.

Cisneros had a documented history of mental health crises. Police records showed incidents involving her in 2018 and 2019, though she had never been arrested. She had roots in Jackson Heights, Queens. Her father, Mario Cisneros, told CBS News that he was aware of his daughter's mental health struggles and believed she was receiving help. He said she had earned a master's degree in psychology. In Spanish, he said his daughter was not a beast but a human being, and he asked for forgiveness from Piacenti and the other victim and their families. "I am sorry for what my daughter did. I am suffering like they are suffering," he said.

In the hours after the attack, people moving through Times Square grappled with what had happened. A student who attends school near the area said she was shaken by the violence occurring in such a public place. Another witness, Max Weinbrown, reflected on the broader question the incident raised: how the city addresses mental health crises, particularly those severe enough to lead to violence.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that the police shooting was recorded on body cameras worn by the officers involved. He said the footage would be released at a later date. The Force Investigation Division, the unit that examines police use of force, opened an investigation into the shooting. The case remained open as of the reporting date.