A woman armed with two knives randomly stabbed two people, one fatally, in the middle of crowded Times Square on Monday afternoon before being shot dead by the police when she refused to put down her weapons, the authorities said.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that the police tried to persuade the woman to disarm for four minutes, but that she told officers: “I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.”
The mayhem erupted just before 4:30 p.m. Ms. Tisch said that the woman, Pamela Cisneros, 49, walked up to a 68-year-old man who had just exited the subway with his wife. The couple were waiting to cross the street at West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue when Ms. Cisneros pulled the knives from a red Target bag, stabbed the man on the side of his abdomen and headed toward 42nd Street, Ms. Tisch said.
The fatal stabbing came less than 20 seconds later, the police said. Aliou Dieye, a vendor who sells sunglasses and ball caps, said he saw the assailant holding a knife and approaching another woman right in front of his stand.
“She didn’t say nothing,” Mr. Dieye, 62, said. “She walked up to her. She stabbed her in the stomach.”
Mr. Dieye said that the victim fell to the sidewalk and that he and a friend called 911 as the stabber headed north. Ms. Tisch called the stabbings a “senseless attack,” and said that the woman, who was 32, was pronounced dead at the hospital. The 68-year-old man was in stable condition, Ms. Tisch said. Neither victim’s name has been released.
At West 43rd Street, near a Police Department substation, Ms. Cisneros was confronted by police officers. There are at least two videos of what happened next. One, posted on X, appears to show her holding a knife in each hand as she engages in a standoff with the officers. They are standing in a semicircle around her about 10 feet away as cars and pedestrians continue to go by.
After 38 seconds, someone can be heard yelling, “Tase her.” Ms. Cisneros begins waving her arms in circles. Someone yells “Tase her” again. Several percussive sounds are heard, the wires that are attached to Taser darts can be seen near Ms. Cisneros, and an officer holding what appears to be a Taser gun enters the frame. Ms. Tisch said two officers fired Tasers at Ms. Cisneros.
Ms. Cisneros begins charging toward the officers, two or three shots ring out, and she falls.
Another video, provided by a former law enforcement official and taken from behind the officers, shows at least seven officers surrounding Ms. Cisneros. Billboard ads for a jeweler play surreally on giant video screens in the background as she runs toward the officers. Shots can be heard in that video, too.
At a news conference in Times Square with the police commissioner, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, “I want to thank the N.Y.P.D. officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse.” Ms. Tisch said, “Our officers did exactly what they’re trained to do.”
Ms. Tisch said that Ms. Cisneros lived in Queens and that, according to police records, she had a “documented mental health history” that showed two encounters with her, one in 2018 and another in 2019. Ms. Tisch declined to describe the episodes.
In yet another video, provided by a food vendor, Ms. Cisneros can be seen lying on the ground. Blood is spreading across the sidewalk as officers appear to render aid to her. Paramedics then transport her on a gurney. The police said they recovered two kitchen knives at the scene.
The stabbings took place a week before Labor Day, when summer visitors crowd Times Square, one of the city’s biggest draws for tourists.
“This was an extraordinarily dangerous situation unfolding in the heart of Times Square, the crossroads of the world,” Ms. Tisch said.
Crowds thronged the crime scene throughout the afternoon. One person brought a speaker and played the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” theme song. Many others wondered if the scene was a movie set.
Karyn Dasent, 48, visiting the city from Trinidad, said, “It does make me feel uneasy to just be walking around.”
Killings in Times Square are relatively rare. There had been two murders this year as of Aug. 30 in the Midtown South Police Precinct, which includes Times Square, and two during the same period last year, according to police data. As of Aug. 30, felony assaults in the precinct were down 5 percent from last year, to 363 from 384.
But there have been other high-profile attacks in marquee public spaces in Midtown in recent months. In April, a man with a machete slashed three people at the subway station in Grand Central. And in June, a man stabbed seven people in the span of two minutes inside Penn Station, the nation’s busiest train hub. In those episodes, no one had life-threatening injuries.
Tom Harris, the president of the Times Square Alliance, which represents businesses in the area, called the stabbings “a tragedy that will not soon be forgotten.”
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families at this time,” he said. “We are thankful that once again the N.Y.P.D. was swift to act and put themselves in harm’s way to stop the perpetrator before more were injured.”
Jamie Leventhal contributed reporting.
The post Woman Stabs 2, Killing One, in Times Square and Is Shot Dead by N.Y.P.D. appeared first on New York Times.
