Disturbing family secrets of Times Square knifewoman who cops shot dead after she murdered female Bank of America VP
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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.
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