Disturbing family secrets of Times Square knifewoman who cops shot dead after she murdered female Bank of America VP
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
New details have emerged about Pamela Cisneros Lopez, the 49-year-old woman shot dead by police after fatally stabbing Bank of America vice president Erin Piacenti, 32, and injuring 68-year-old Tak Kam in Times Square on Monday. Her brother, Patrick Peralta, said the family had been tight-knit, with Lopez the youngest of six children, an HR worker and daily churchgoer, but that she had grown estranged from two of her three daughters, who live with their father in Florida, while her third child, who is non-verbal with severe autism, lives in a Brooklyn care home.
Peralta said Lopez had struggled with postpartum depression and later bipolar disorder, and had attempted suicide by lying on train tracks at Jamaica station in March 2019. Despite years of turmoil, including a divorce dragging on for five to eight years, she had appeared stable for around six years, caring for her mother through heart surgeries and hosting a family birthday party as recently as 8 August. The only warning sign, Peralta said, was that Lopez had stopped appearing for her usual nightly dinners at her mother's house in the week before the attack, and had failed to turn up for work on the day she instead carried out the Times Square stabbing.
- Family reveals Lopez's history of bipolar disorder and a 2019 suicide attempt.
- She was estranged from two of her three daughters for years.
- Brother says she had seemed stable until stopping her usual visits recently.
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Pamela Cisneros Lopez, 49, was the woman who stabbed people in Times Square on Monday, killing Bank of America vice president Erin Piacenti, 32, and injuring 68-year-old Tak Kam, before being shot dead by police. She worked in HR, attended church daily, and by her brother's account had long been part of a close family, though she had grown distant from two of her three children.
Her brother has described a history of mental health struggles, including postpartum depression, a later bipolar diagnosis, and a suicide attempt in 2019, alongside a lengthy divorce. He says she appeared to have stabilised in recent years, still caring for her mother and attending family events, which is why the attack has come as a shock to relatives who had seen little sign of what was to come.
The case matters because it has drawn attention not only for the violence itself but for the questions it raises about mental illness, family estrangement and the warning signs, or lack of them, that preceded a fatal public attack in one of New York's busiest locations.
Full account
A woman armed with two kitchen knives launched an unprovoked attack in the middle of Times Square on Monday afternoon, killing a Bank of America executive and wounding a 68-year-old man before she was shot dead by police. The attacker was named as Pamela Cisneros Lopez (also reported simply as Pamela Cisneros), 49, of Queens, while the woman she killed was identified as Erin Piacenti, 32. The assault, which took place in one of New York City's busiest tourist areas, prompted a swift and heavily armed police response and briefly brought part of Manhattan's theatre district to a standstill.
According to the NYPD, the attack unfolded in two swift stages roughly twenty seconds apart. Cisneros Lopez is said to have first approached the 68-year-old man, named in some reports as Tak Kam, near West 41st Street as he waited to cross the road with his wife after leaving a subway station, pulling the knives from a bag before stabbing him in the abdomen; he was taken to Bellevue Hospital and was said to be in a stable condition. She then moved north along Seventh Avenue towards West 42nd Street and stabbed Piacenti, who died at the same hospital. Officers who confronted Cisneros Lopez described a tense four-minute standoff in which she ignored repeated orders to drop the weapons; when she advanced on them still brandishing the knives, a Taser was deployed but failed to subdue her, and two officers then opened fire, killing her. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said officers had faced a fast-moving threat amid a crowd of bystanders, and stressed that the attack appeared random and unprovoked, with no indication of a terrorism link, though she noted Cisneros Lopez had had mental-health-related contact with police in 2018 and 2019 without ever being arrested.
Piacenti, who lived in Chester, New Jersey, was said to have been walking away from the office when she was killed, in only her first week back at work after five months of maternity leave following the birth of her daughter. She held the role of vice president of business selection and conflicts at Bank of America. Friends and colleagues noted she had recently shared photographs on social media of her daughter's christening and family travels taken during her leave, alongside her husband, Frank Piacenti. Bank of America said it was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the death of a colleague it described as a valued member of the team.
Relatives of Cisneros Lopez, speaking to reporters at her mother's home in Jackson Heights, painted a picture of a woman whose life had unravelled over many years despite a close-knit, churchgoing upbringing as the youngest of six children. Her brother said she had worked in human resources and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder roughly a decade ago, tracing back to postpartum depression after the birth of her second child. He said she had struggled for years to raise her three daughters largely on her own, feeling she had achieved little else in life, before a suicide attempt on subway tracks in Queens in March 2019 marked a low point. Her family said she had been enduring a prolonged and unresolved divorce, lasting between five and eight years, and had become estranged from two of her daughters, who live in Florida with their father; her third daughter, who is non-verbal and has severe autism, lives in residential care in Brooklyn.
Where outlets differ
The two accounts diverge sharply in focus: the Daily Mail centres on an interview with the attacker's brother and dwells on her long-term mental illness, estrangement from her daughters and marital breakdown, while the Fox News report is built around the NYPD's procedural account of the attack and the standoff, plus tributes to the victim from Bank of America.
Naming differs slightly — one report renders her full name as Pamela Cisneros Lopez, the other simply as Pamela Cisneros.
Only the Fox report names the second, surviving victim's precise stable condition and location details (West 41st/42nd Streets); the Daily Mail names him as Tak Kam but gives fewer clinical details.
The Daily Mail gives an approximate time of the attack (around 4.30pm); the Fox report does not specify a time but gives more granular detail on the sequence and duration of the police standoff.
Only the Fox account includes police confirmation that there was no terrorism link and details her prior, unarrested contact with police in 2018-19; the Daily Mail does not address this directly, focusing instead on her psychiatric history and a 2019 suicide attempt disclosed by her family.
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