A young Bank of America executive was killed and a man was injured in a New York City stabbing spree earlier this week. The knife-wielding woman was shot and killed by police after she refused to drop her weapons.
The Victim
As reported on Wednesday’s AM Update, 32-year-old Erin Piacenti of Chester, New Jersey, was killed after being stabbed around 4:30pm Monday in Times Square. The University of Pennsylvania and Fordham Law graduate was working in Manhattan as a vice president at the bank.
Piacenti had recently celebrated her second wedding anniversary, according to The New York Post, and was also a new mom. She was reportedly in her first week back at Bank of America after five months of maternity leave at the time of the stabbing.
The New York Times reported Piacenti shared a photo holding her newborn daughter beside her husband, a fellow Fordham Law grad, on social media just days before her death.
The Stabbing Spree
Police identified the woman accused of killing Piacenti as 49-year-old Queens resident Pamela Cisneros. A witness at the scene told investigators that he observed the suspect remove two knives from a red Target bag before approaching the first victim, a 68-year-old man, and stabbing him in the abdomen in what appeared to be a random, unprovoked attack.
Cisneros then proceeded up Seventh Avenue toward 42nd Street and approached Piacenti, stabbing her in the abdomen as well. Both stabbings occurred within approximately 20 seconds of each other.
The young executive was reportedly on her way home when she was attacked and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The 68-year-old man was hospitalized and released Tuesday afternoon.
Witnesses flagged down officers on Seventh Avenue between West 42nd and West 43rd Streets, and police said Cisneros was still carrying both knives when they tried to get her to surrender.
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, officers confronted Cisneros for four minutes and “gave her numerous commands to drop the knife,” which she refused. “During the encounter, she told the officers, ‘I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.’ She repeated, ‘I will kill you,'” Tisch said.
Police initially tried tasing Cisneros before two officers discharged their service weapons and struck Cisneros. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Mental Health Problems
Cisneros had a “documented mental health history,” according to Tisch, and her brother, Patrick Peralta, told The Daily Mail his sister had reportedly been diagnosed with bipolar disorder after struggling with postpartum depression years earlier.
He said she had been estranged from her daughters and was going through a difficult divorce but appeared to have been doing better while taking medication. Even so, Peralta said Cisneros had recently stopped showing up for her usual dinners at their mother’s house and had not come home for about a week prior to the incident.
He also recounted a past suicide attempt and offered a theory about the confrontation with police. “I think she wanted to get shot,” he posited.
Megyn’s Take
On Wednesday’s Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn discussed the troubling incident and the disturbing reaction to it from leftists on social media platforms like Blue Sky. Watch:
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,390 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.