**Here are the verified facts regarding Pamela Cisneros’s background, recent routine, and family statements in the days before the Times Square incident on August 31, 2026.**

Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Woodside, Queens, was a mother of three. Family members have described her as someone who had faced long-term mental health challenges for roughly two decades, beginning after the birth of her second daughter with postpartum depression. Her brother, Patrick Peralta, has said he believed she also dealt with bipolar disorder. She had multiple hospitalizations and a documented history of mental-health-related encounters with the NYPD in 2018 and 2019, including a suicide attempt in March 2019 when she jumped onto the tracks at the Union Turnpike subway station in Queens. She had no criminal record.

According to Peralta and other relatives, Cisneros had achieved a period of relative stability in recent years through treatment. Because she had difficulty taking daily medication, she was prescribed monthly psychiatric injections. Peralta stated that for the last four to six years, as long as she received the injections, “nothing was wrong” and “she was fine.” He said she never showed aggressiveness or violence toward others during that time. She lived alone in Woodside, worked intermittently (including as an administrative ᴀssistant for an immigration attorney in the months before the incident), held a master’s degree in psychology, and regularly visited her mother and stepfather for meals nearly every afternoon and on weekends.

Family members have pointed to changes in her recent routine as a possible area of concern. Peralta said Cisneros used to receive the injections in person but had more recently been administering them herself. He speculated that she may have missed the injections in the last couple of months, stating: “That’s the only thing I can suggest, that maybe she didn’t get the last couple of months of injections. Her brain was going all over.” Her father, Mario Cisneros, confirmed she had been receiving monthly injections and said that in recent months she had expressed a desire not to depend on the medication. In April 2026, she declined a ride from him to her appointment at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, telling him: “No, Dad, don’t worry. I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

In the week leading up to the August 31 attack, relatives noticed she stopped making her usual visits. Peralta said the family became concerned and began calling her. Her mother spoke with her by phone on Saturday (two days before the incident). Cisneros reported that she was fine. Peralta last saw her in person around August 8–10 at a birthday gathering for their stepfather that she had helped organize; he described her then as “fine” and “normal.”

On Monday afternoon, August 31, Cisneros pulled two kitchen knives from a Target bag near Times Square and stabbed two strangers in rapid succession. One victim, 32-year-old Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America vice president and new mother, died. The second, a 68-year-old man, survived. Cisneros was then fatally sH๏τ by NYPD officers after refusing commands to drop the knives, threatening them, and advancing while armed. Tasers were used first but were ineffective.

Family members have expressed shock and said they cannot reconcile the person they knew with the actions of that afternoon. Peralta stated he never knew her to harm anyone other than herself before this incident. No official determination has been publicly released confirming whether Cisneros had stopped her medication or the precise medical factors involved. The comments about the injections and the recent change in her visiting routine remain statements from family members. The NYPD has confirmed her documented mental-health history from 2018–2019 but has not released further clinical details. The Force Investigation Division and the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation are examining the officer-involved shooting.

These details are drawn from contemporaneous interviews with Patrick Peralta, Mario Cisneros, and other relatives reported by outlets including the New York Daily News, New York Post, Gothamist, and The New York Times in the days immediately after the incident.

**Pamela Cisneros: Family Statements, Mental Health History, and the Days Before the Times Square Attack**

Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Woodside, Queens, was the central figure in a sudden and violent sequence of events that unfolded in Times Square on the afternoon of Monday, August 31, 2026. According to New York Police Department officials, she pulled two kitchen knives from a red Target shopping bag and stabbed two strangers in rapid succession in what authorities described as random and unprovoked attacks. One victim, 32-year-old Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America vice president from Chester, New Jersey, and a new mother, died from her injuries. The second victim, a 68-year-old man visiting from Rhode Island, survived after being stabbed in the abdomen. Minutes later, Cisneros was fatally sH๏τ by NYPD officers near an NYPD substation after she refused repeated commands to drop the knives, made explicit threats, and advanced toward officers while still armed. Tasers were deployed first and proved ineffective.

In the days that followed, family members of Cisneros spoke publicly about the woman they had known and the long-term struggles she had faced. Their accounts painted a picture of a mother of three who had lived with serious mental health challenges for roughly two decades, had achieved periods of relative stability through treatment, and had given no clear outward warning of the violence that occurred that Monday afternoon. The gap between the person described by relatives and the individual who carried out the stabbings has remained a central focus of public discussion and family reflection.

Cisneros’s brother, Patrick Peralta, 59, provided some of the most detailed public statements. He described his sister as someone who had never shown aggressiveness or violence toward others prior to the Times Square incident. According to Peralta, her mental health difficulties began approximately twenty years earlier, after the birth of her second daughter, when she experienced postpartum depression. He said he believed she later developed bipolar disorder, though he acknowledged he did not know the full clinical diagnosis. Cisneros had three daughters. One, who is autistic and nonverbal, lives in a group home in Brooklyn and was visited regularly by her mother. The other two daughters live in Florida with their father, Cisneros’s former husband. Peralta said he had to inform those two daughters of their mother’s death by telephone.

Family members recounted a history that included multiple hospitalizations. Cisneros had been treated at Jamaica Hospital and at Bellevue Hospital on more than one occasion. In December 2018, according to police sources cited in news reports, she had a mental-health-related encounter with the NYPD after being described as belligerent, intoxicated, and screaming along Lexington Avenue in Midtown. In March 2019, she attempted suicide by jumping onto the tracks of the E train at the Union Turnpike station in Queens. That incident led to further intervention by her family. Police later confirmed that Cisneros had a documented mental health history with the department involving the 2018 and 2019 incidents, but she had no criminal record.

After the 2019 suicide attempt, relatives said Cisneros’s condition appeared to stabilize with the help of medication. Because she had difficulty adhering to a daily medication regimen, she was prescribed monthly psychiatric injections. Peralta stated that for the last four to six years, as long as she received those injections, “nothing was wrong” and “she was fine.” He emphasized repeatedly that she had never displayed violence toward other people during that period of treatment. She lived alone in an apartment in Woodside, Queens. She had earned a master’s degree in psychology and had worked intermittently, including recent employment as an administrative ᴀssistant for an attorney who specialized in immigration cases. She maintained close contact with her mother and stepfather, regularly joining them for meals almost every afternoon and on weekends.

In the period immediately preceding the August 31 attack, family members noticed changes in Cisneros’s usual pattern of contact. Peralta said she stopped making her customary visits during the week before the incident. The family became concerned and began trying to reach her by telephone. On Saturday, two days before the stabbings, Cisneros’s mother spoke with her by phone. According to Peralta, Cisneros said she was fine. Peralta himself had last seen his sister in person around August 8 to 10 at a birthday gathering for their stepfather. Cisneros had helped organize the event. He described her at that time as “fine” and “normal.”

Additional details about her treatment routine emerged in family interviews. Peralta said Cisneros had previously gone in person to receive the monthly injections but had more recently begun administering them herself. He raised the possibility that she may have missed doses in the months leading up to the attack. “That’s the only thing I can suggest,” he said, “that maybe she didn’t get the last couple of months of injections. Her brain was going all over.” Her father, Mario Cisneros, 78, also spoke about the injections. He confirmed that his daughter had been receiving monthly treatments for a mental health condition. He recalled that in recent months she had expressed a desire not to depend on medication. In April 2026, when he offered to drive her to a scheduled appointment at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, she declined, telling him she could go alone and that he should not worry. “No, Dad, don’t worry,” he recalled her saying. “I’m good. Don’t worry about me.” Mario Cisneros said he had seen his daughter approximately ten days before the incident and had noticed nothing unusual at that time. He described her as having been “a noble and polite girl, a Christian,” and expressed incomprehension at the sudden change in her behavior.

These family accounts form the primary public record of Cisneros’s recent routine and mental health management. No official medical records or definitive clinical findings regarding her medication adherence in the final months have been released by authorities. The comments about possible missed injections remain statements offered by relatives as they attempted to understand what had occurred. Police have limited their public remarks on her background to confirming the documented mental health history from 2018 and 2019 and stating that the stabbings appeared random and unprovoked, with no indication of terrorism.

The timeline of the attack itself has been established through police statements and bystander video. At approximately 4:24 p.m. on August 31, near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, Cisneros removed two knives from a Target bag and stabbed the 68-year-old man. Roughly twenty seconds later, she moved north and stabbed Erin Piacenti in the abdomen near West 42nd Street. Piacenti was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at Bellevue Hospital. Officers located Cisneros near the NYPD substation in the vicinity of West 43rd Street. According to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, officers spent about four minutes giving repeated commands for her to drop the knives. Cisneros refused and stated that she would rather kill the officers. She waved the knives and advanced. Multiple officers deployed Tasers without success. Two officers then fired their service weapons. Cisneros was transported to the hospital and pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

The confrontation was recorded on officers’ body-worn cameras as well as on multiple bystander cellphone videos that circulated widely. Tisch stated that she had reviewed the body-camera footage in preparing her public account of the verbal exchange and the sequence of force used. The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division opened a standard investigation into the officer-involved shooting. The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation also opened a review of the civilian death.

Family members of Cisneros expressed both sorrow for the victims and continued bewilderment at their relative’s actions. Peralta said the entire family felt sorry for the two people who were stabbed—one who died and one who was injured—and that they had never imagined such an event could occur. Cisneros’s mother, in an interview, questioned why officers had not physically restrained her daughter given the number of police present, asking why they had not simply “grabbed her by the arm.” These remarks reflected the difficulty relatives faced in reconciling the woman who had regularly shared meals with them and reported feeling fine with the person who appeared in Times Square carrying knives.

Cisneros’s life, as described by those closest to her, had included periods of significant hardship and periods of apparent stability. She had navigated divorce, the challenges of raising children with differing needs, educational achievement, intermittent employment, and long-term mental health treatment. The monthly injections were presented by family as the element that had allowed her to function without the crises that had marked earlier years. The possibility that this routine had been disrupted in the final weeks or months was the primary hypothesis offered by her brother as he searched for an explanation.

As of early September 2026, no further official details had been released concerning Cisneros’s medical treatment in the period immediately before the attack. The public information available consists of the contemporaneous statements given by Patrick Peralta, Mario Cisneros, and other relatives to reporters from the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Gothamist, The New York Times, and other outlets, together with the official police account of the events of August 31. Those statements consistently describe a woman who had struggled for years, who had found a measure of stability through monthly injections, who had maintained regular contact with her family until the final week, who had told her mother she was fine two days before the incident, and whose actions that Monday afternoon remained incomprehensible to those who had known her.

The contrast between the ordinary details of her recent life—shared meals, a recent job, a phone call in which she reported feeling fine—and the sudden violence in one of New York’s busiest public spaces continues to define the public understanding of the case. Family members have stated that they cannot explain the transformation. Authorities have described the stabbings as random. The investigations into both the attack and the subsequent use of force remain ongoing. The factual record, drawn from the statements of those closest to Pamela Cisneros and from official police accounts, establishes the outline of her background, the treatment that had previously stabilized her, the changes noticed by relatives in the final days, and the sequence of events that ended with two people stabbed and Cisneros herself ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.