'She was getting injections': Parents reveal troubling clue about Times Square stabbing suspect
Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The father of the woman killed by NYPD officers after the Times Square stabbing spree says his daughter, Pamela Cisneros, had been receiving monthly medication injections before the attack.
Mario Cisneros, while speaking to ABC 7 NY's 'Eyewitness News' on Wednesday, September 2, said he had seen her just days earlier and thought she was doing fine.
Her mother has also spoken publicly, questioning why police shot her daughter instead of physically restraining her as she approached officers carrying knives.
Suspect's father reveals shocking details
“I knew my daughter very well, but I didn't know what was going on with her. What I do know is she was getting injections,” Mario Cisneros told 'Eyewitness News'.
He said his daughter was receiving the injections as treatment for a mental-health condition.
When he saw her the week before Monday's violence, he said she appeared fine and did not seem capable of the behavior that followed.
“She was not a violent person,” Cisneros said.
The father said the family still cannot make sense of what happened. “We don't understand because the situation reversed,” he said.
Cisneros' mother has separately challenged the decision by police to use deadly force.
Speaking to Fox 5 News in Spanish on Tuesday, she questioned why officers could not have grabbed her daughter.
“There were so many police, why didn’t they grab her by the arm?” she asked.
Suspect had a history of mental illness
Police said the Times Square attack ended with officers shooting Cisneros after she allegedly refused to surrender the knives she was carrying.
Authorities said tasers failed to stop her as she moved toward officers, leaving them to open fire.
The confrontation came after police said she had stabbed two people, killing a new mother later identified as Bank of America VP Erin Piacenti and seriously injuring a 68-year-old man.
But the deadly encounter was not Cisneros’ first reported interaction with authorities during a mental-health crisis.
Police had been called to a Manhattan hotel in 2018 after she was reportedly behaving belligerently.
Bank of America Vice President Erin Piacenti, 32, was killed after police say a knife-wielding woman randomly stabbed two people in Times Square. The suspect, identified as Pamela Cisneros of Queens, allegedly first stabbed a 68-year-old man near Seventh Avenue before attacking… https://t.co/NaiouLiGUA pic.twitter.com/JcggwzLKhq
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 1, 2026
The following year, officers responded after she allegedly jumped onto subway tracks during another crisis.
Her family has also described a difficult battle with mental illness.
Her brother, Patrick Peralta, said Cisneros was diagnosed with bipolar disorder about 10 years ago.
He said the family began noticing problems after she gave birth to one of her children and believed she was suffering from postpartum depression.
Peralta also said Cisneros’ personal life had become increasingly fractured, including years of estrangement from two of her three daughters.
Yet relatives had also seen signs of improvement. He said she appeared more stable in recent years while taking medication, making the latest violence particularly difficult for the family to understand.
