The woman who was killed in a "random and unprovoked" knife attack on Times Square in New York City was Bank of America Vice President Erin Piacenti, authorities said. The 32-year-old Ivy League banker was a new mom who had just returned to work after maternity leave, according to US media reports.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague," the Bank of America (BofA)-- the second-biggest US lender-- said in a statement.
Who Was Erin Piacenti
University of Pennsylvania grad Piacenti was a vice president in BofA's business selection and conflicts unit, according to her LinkedIn profile.
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.
Just four days before her brutal killing, Piacenti had posted a photo of herself smiling broadly while holding her infant and standing with her husband and wrote how happy she was, the New York Times reported.
In the post, she reportedly said she was grateful for getting five months off from the bank to care for her new daughter. She also reportedly told her followers that her baby had recently been baptised and that she and her husband, with whom she just celebrated a second wedding anniversary, had been travelling, including to Long Beach, NJ, Maine, and Rhode Island.
Talking to the NYT, her grandmother described Piacenti as a beautiful, beautiful girl."
"Random Attack"
The banking exec was stabbed to death by a knife-wielding woman in New York's tourist and theater hub in what police later described as a "random and unprovoked" attack. One more person, a 68-year-old man whose identity hasn't been released, was also injured in the attack. He was hospitalised, and no update on his condition was immediately available.
Police identified the attacker Tuesday as Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens. Officers shot and killed her after the stabbing.
Police later described Cisneros as a mentally disturbed mom of three. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said she 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 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.
🇺🇸 WOMAN SHOT DEAD BY POLICE AFTER FATAL TIMES SQUARE STABBING
— BRICS + World (@BricsPlusWorld) September 1, 2026
Armed with two knives, she stabbed two people, killing one, before advancing toward officers
Tasers failed to stop her—and police opened fire pic.twitter.com/v734OkMTYW
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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