Pamela Cisneros, Queens, NY woman with history of mental illness shot dead by cops in NYC’s Times Square after randomly stabbing two people and refusing to drop her knives. Incident leaves woman, 32, killed, and man, 68, in stable condition. No known motive.
A 49-year-old woman with a history of mental illness who ‘randomly’ stabbed two people at NYC’s Times Square was shot dead by cops as she continued to ignore their demands to drop her knives.
Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens, N.Y., is alleged to have ‘randomly’ stabbed a man and a woman in a 20-second span near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue just before 4:30 p.m., Monday afternoon.
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Responding officers found Cisneros a block away behind an NYPD substation, waving two knives at them the nypost reported.
Cops gave the woman ‘numerous commands’ to drop the knives, but she refused, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a Monday night press conference.
‘I’m not dropping anything, I would rather kill both of you. I will kill you,’ Cisneros told cops during the encounter, Tisch said.
Officers discharged several tasers at Cisneros, but they ‘proved to be ineffective,’ as she charged toward officers with the knives, according to Tisch.
Two officers then opened fire, striking the Cisneros, who had a known history of mental illness.
The unprovoked stabbings and subsequent shooting all occured in roughly 20 minutes and sent panicked tourists and commuters scrambling for safety.
Earlier, Cisneros took out two knives from a red Target bag and stabbed the first victim, a 68-year-old man, in the abdomen as he exited the subway on West 41st Street and was waiting to cross the street, Tisch said.
The knife-wielding woman then continued up to 42nd Street and fatally stabbed a 32-year-old woman in the abdomen in an ‘unprovoked attack,’ Tisch added.
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Multiple videos posted to social media captured Cisneros, who was wearing a pink shirt, jeans, and a crossbody purse, then flailing the weapons in front of police and a large crowd of onlookers.
The NYPD said the suspect’s two knives were recovered.
All three people – Cisneros and the two stabbing victims – were taken to Bellevue hospital, where Cisneros and the female victim were pronounced dead. The man is alive and in stable condition.
Police had not released the names of the victims pending notification of their families.
Cisneros has a documented history of mental illness with the NYPD, with one incident in 2018 and another in 2019. She has no previous arrests, Tisch said.
The shooting was caught on police body cameras, and an internal investigation into the shooting is underway, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the press conference.
Both Tisch and Mamdani defended the officers’s lethal use of force, though it will be investigated, which is standard for officer-involved shootings in New York.
‘I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse,’ Mamdani said.
The incident is not believed to be terrorism-related. A motive is not yet known.
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