The New York Police Department shot and killed a knife-wielding woman in Times Square on September 1 after she stabbed two individuals in a random attack that left one dead and another injured NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Pamela Cisneros 49 of Queens approached her first victim near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue shortly after 4:24 p.m. She removed two knives from a red Target bag before stabbing the 68-year-old man in the abdomen and then a 32-year-old woman in the same area moments later according to Tisch.
The female victim succumbed to her injuries at Bellevue Hospital while the male victim remained in stable condition following treatment at the same facility police reported. Cisneros then proceeded north toward an NYPD substation still brandishing the weapons. Officers engaged her for approximately four minutes issuing repeated commands to drop the knives as she threatened them according to Tisch.
When Cisneros advanced on the officers despite multiple Taser deployments two of them fired their service weapons striking her a department assessment found. She was transported to Bellevue Hospital and pronounced dead there. Authorities identified the suspect as emotionally disturbed with prior mental health interactions with the NYPD in 2018 and 2019 but no criminal record Tisch stated.
New York City Independent Budget Office data from January 2026 places the number of mental health-related emergency calls citywide at more than 25,000 per quarter in recent years highlighting ongoing demands on responders. The B-HEARD program designed to dispatch civilian teams to such crises has expanded but still handles fewer than 40 percent of relevant calls across precincts according to a Vera Institute analysis of 2025 911 data. In this instance the initial report treated the event as a possible knifepoint robbery before police determined there was no clear motive beyond the suspect’s disturbed state.
Tisch described the unfolding events as an extraordinarily dangerous situation in the heart of Times Square. «This was an extraordinarily dangerous situation unfolding in the heart of Times Square the crossroads of the world» she stated at a press conference. Mayor Zohran Mamdani thanked the officers for preventing further harm while noting the standard investigation into the use of force.
According to NYPD preliminary figures for the first half of 2026 major felony crimes have declined by 5.8 percent compared to the prior year though incidents involving emotionally disturbed persons continue to require specialized responses. The two knives used in the attack were recovered at the scene. Traffic was restricted from West 42nd to West 47th streets during the ongoing investigation.
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