The violence erupted Monday at the heart of New York City’s Times Square when a woman armed with two knives carried out a random stabbing attack that killed one person and injured another, authorities said. Police shot and killed the suspect when she refused to drop her weapons and approached them in the middle of the crowd.
The attack began at 4 p.m. in Manhattan’s busy Times Square, one of the city’s most popular tourist spots, said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Police identified the suspect as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros, a resident of Queens. Cisneros pulled out two knives from a shopping bag and approached a 68-year-old man and stabbed him in the abdomen, Tisch said. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Cisneros then moved down Seventh Avenue and attacked a 32-year-old woman. The woman was critically injured and taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead later that night. The two stabbings occurred within seconds of each other, police said, leaving bystanders shocked and scrambling for safety.
Witnesses quickly notified nearby police officers who found the suspect near an NYPD substation near One Times Square, the iconic building where the New Year’s Eve ball drop takes place. Officers confronted Cisneros and repeatedly ordered her to surrender. Video from the scene showed the woman holding a knife in each hand as she faced a group of armed police.
Police said they spent several minutes trying to de-escalate the situation and deployed Tasers to stop her without using deadly force. But the Tasers did not incapacitate the suspect. Cisneros continued to move toward officers while still holding knives and was still making threats toward them, the officers said. With the police saying that the suspect was an imminent threat to them and the large number of people in the vicinity, two officers fired on the suspect. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Cisneros had a mental health history and had previous criminal interactions with police officials, but was not arrested, the lawsuit says. There’s no evidence that this attack was motivated by terrorism or organised crime, authorities said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered his condolences to the victims and their families and praised the officers who acted quickly in response to a very dangerous situation in one of the city’s busiest public spaces. The police-involved shooting is now being investigated by the police, and the circumstances of the attack are under investigation, the investigators said.
And it has raised questions about public safety and mental health treatment in major urban centres again. Times Square, which is filled with millions of people every year, was briefly closed off as investigators scoped through the scene and picked up evidence.
