September 02, 2026
Kirby Lee/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
Erin Piacenti, 32, a Penn graduate, was fatally stabbed in Times Square on Monday afternoon, police say. Above, a file photo of Times Square from July. The stabbing took place about one block away.
A University of Pennsylvania graduate was one of two people stabbed in Times Square on Monday afternoon in what New York City police have described as a "random and unprovoked attack."
Erin Piacenti, 32, was stabbed in the abdomen as she walked near a street vendor on West 41st Street. She was taken a hospital and pronounced dead. Another man, Tak Kam, 68, also was stabbed but is expected to recover.
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Piacenti, of Chester, New Jersey, graduated from Penn in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in political science, her LinkedIn page shows. She later graduated from the Fordham University School of Law in 2021. After working for multiple firms, she took on a role as vice president of business selection and conflicts for Bank of America in 2025.
Piacenti had just returned to work after spending five months on maternity leave, the New York Times reported. Days earlier, she had posted a photo of herself holding her newborn daughter alongside her husband.
The woman who stabbed Piacenti and Kam, identified as Pamela Cisneros, 49, was fatally shot by police in the aftermath of the shooting.
Investigators said officers spoke with Cisneros for four minutes and instructed her to drop a pair of knives. Cisneros refused to do so and threatened the officers' lives, saying she would rather kill them, NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters.
The officers then twice deployed their Tasers, but the stun guns were "ineffective," prompting them to open fire, police said.
Tisch said Cisneros, of Queens, had a "documented mental health history" that included previous encounters with police in 2018 and 2019.
