A woman, described as “emotionally disturbed,” was fatally shot by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in Times Square after pulling knives and stabbing two people, killing one.
At around 4:26 p.m. on Monday (August 31), witnesses claimed the woman — identified as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens — was threatening people with two knives near West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue.
The suspect ended up stabbing two people: a 68-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman. The man had just exited the subway and was waiting to cross the street with his wife. The suspect withdrew the knives from a bag, waved them, and stabbed him in the abdomen.
The suspect then approached the second victim, whom she also stabbed in the abdomen. Emergency personnel rusehd both victims to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Sadly, the woman succumbed to hers and the man has since stabilized.
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the stabbings “appear to be random and unprovoked.” After the incidents, the woman fled toward the NYPD substation in Times Square at 4:27 p.m. There, officers confronted her and demanded she drop the knives. After refusing, officers began tasing her. Tisch said the woman had a “documented mental health history.”
She also claimed, “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’.” When they again demanded she drop the weapons, she refused and continued to walk towards them. Subsequently, two officers fired shots, striking her. Tisch said officials pronounced the woman dead at a hospital.
During a press briefing, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani thanked police. He said, “I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse. This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe.” Mamdani also said the NYPD will conduct an internal investigation. He added that the body-worn camera footage will later be released to the public.
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