Times Square stabbing attack: Woman knifes two pedestrians
A 49-year-old woman stabbed two people in Times Square, killing one, before police shot her dead after she refused to drop her knives and threatened officers.
Terror gripped New York on Monday afternoon when a 49-year-old woman attacked passersby with knives in the heart of Times Square. The assailant, Pamela Cisneros from Queens, stabbed two people apparently at random before police shot and killed her.
According to a report by Newsbreak, Cisneros pulled two knives from a bag bearing a well-known supermarket chain logo and began threatening passersby. She first struck a 68-year-old man in the abdomen. Twenty seconds later she turned on a 32-year-old woman, whom she also stabbed in the abdomen. The young woman later succumbed to her injuries at hospital. The man is being treated in stable condition. The identities of the victims have not yet been released as authorities await notification of their families.
Officers who arrived quickly on the scene tried for approximately four minutes to persuade her to surrender the weapons. They repeatedly ordered her to drop the knives. She refused. According to New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the woman is reported to have told the officers: “I’m not putting anything down. I’d rather kill you.”
NYPD shoots, kills knife-wielding woman who stabbed two people, one fatally, in Times Square https://t.co/mMi9YVL9j9 pic.twitter.com/F8xJe6goHm
— New York Post (@nypost) September 1, 2026
Police Intervention
In video captured by passersby and circulated on social media, the 49-year-old can be seen wearing a pink short-sleeved T-shirt, holding the two knives and threatening the officers. An eyewitness who spoke to television station PIX11 News described how the woman ran past him holding the knives. NYPD officers used a Taser to try to stop her. The electroshock had no effect. Cisneros moved toward them and at that point they opened fire, striking her twice.
A reporter from Agence France-Presse who arrived at the scene after the stabbing attack saw a heavy police presence, emergency medical teams, and a pool of blood on the ground.
The 49-year-old had been known to authorities since 2018 and suffered from mental health problems. Commissioner Tisch made clear there is no reason to consider the attack an act of terrorism. She stressed, however, that the situation was extremely dangerous, as it unfolded in the heart of Times Square, where thousands of New Yorkers, workers, tourists, and families circulate at any given moment.
The city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, thanked the officers who intervened. As he said, they prevented the possibility of this horrific attack taking on even more tragic dimensions.
