University of Pennsylvania grad killed in ‘random and unprovoked’ stabbing attack in Times Square

This story originally appeared on 6abc

A New Jersey woman has been identified as the victim who was killed in a stabbing incident in Times Square on Monday.

Police say 32-year-old Erin Piacenti, of Chester, N.J., died at the hospital. The other victim, a 68-year-old man, is hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

Piacenti graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and Fordham Law in 2021, according to her social media. She is the vice president of business selection and conflicts for Bank of America.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones,” Bank of America said in a statement.

The NYPD said the stabbing was 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.

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, identified as 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.