In the minutes before Pamela Cisneros was killed by the police while wielding two kitchen knives in Times Square last month, patrol officers tried repeatedly to calm her down and keep her from escalating the encounter, new video released by the New York Police Department shows.
Ms. Cisneros, 49, was fatally shot by police officers on the afternoon of Aug. 31, minutes after she stabbed two people in the area, one fatally. Ms. Cisneros had arrived in Midtown not long before with a Target shopping bag containing two large knives. She attacked a 68-year-old man, Tak Kam, before walking a block and stabbing Erin Piacenti, 32, to death.
Ms. Cisneros, whose family said she had lived with severe mental illness for decades, was then approached by police officers in an encounter that would ultimately lead to her death. According to the authorities, two officers fired a total of three rounds at Ms. Cisneros after she refused to drop her weapons and moved toward them with the knives aloft.
Ms. Cisneros’s killing, which was captured on video by multiple onlookers and shared widely on social media, startled the city and reignited a debate over if, and how, police officers should respond to New Yorkers in mental distress.
New second-by-second body camera videos released by the Police Department this week show a complicated — and emotional — encounter in which officers try for minutes on end to calm Ms. Cisneros as she repeats that she is “tired of this world” and urges them to come at her.
The videos, published by the department on Friday, show the body camera videos of four officers who responded to Ms. Cisneros at different points during her four-minute encounter with the police. The release of body camera videos, like those published this week, is standard during the department’s investigation into any police shooting. Ms. Cisneros’s death is being investigated by the department’s Force Investigation Division and the attorney general’s office, as is typical in cases in which police officers cause a death.
The new recordings begin at around 4:25 p.m., moments after Ms. Cisneros stabbed Ms. Piacenti. The first video, which was taken from the body camera of Officer Ryan Brito, shows Officer Brito and another officer stopping Ms. Cisneros near One Times Square and entreating her to “talk to us” as she points both knives at them.
For the next few minutes, Officer Brito can be heard calmly asking Ms. Cisneros to tell him what she’s feeling and encouraging her to breathe. “Come and get me,” Ms. Cisneros says to the officers several times.
The exchange continues in a similar manner as Ms. Cisneros tells the officers repeatedly that she is “tired of this” and that she has “been through too much already,” using an expletive. “This is the only way out,” she adds.
Officer Brito, in turn, responds softly, urging Ms. Cisneros to relax. At one point, he appeals to her in Spanish. At another, he tells her that he too has struggled. “There’s a lot to live for, mama,” he says. “The world is hard, especially New York City,” he adds. “This is not the way.”
As the two go back and forth in the videos, Officer Brito’s partner can be heard calling for backup. Behind Ms. Cisneros, the city appears to churn on, as tourists bike and cars whiz by.
By 4:27, though, things take a turn. Ms. Cisneros can be heard insisting to a third officer who has arrived that he is going to have to kill her or else she will “kill all of you.” About a minute later, at least five more officers arrive at the scene. One points a Taser at Ms. Cisneros and begins to yell “drop it” as he walks toward her.
From there, the scene intensifies as patrol cars pull up and more officers arrive. Officer Brito can still be heard in the background urging Ms. Cisneros not to make matters worse, but she refuses and continues to point knives at the semicircle of officers surrounding her.
After almost 20 orders to drop her weapons, at 4:29 p.m., Ms. Cisneros begins windmilling her arms with the knives still in hand.
Several officers approach her and discharge their Tasers, which do not appear to make contact. A few seconds later, Ms. Cisneros begins quick-stepping toward one of the officers, knives outstretched. She is feet from the officer when two others, identified as Joseph O’Connor and Steven Darcy of the Midtown South Precinct, pull out their guns and fire multiple times, sending her to the ground.
According to the police, Ms. Cisneros was then taken by emergency medical workers to Bellevue Hospital, where she died.
In the aftermath of Ms. Cisneros’s death, policing experts said that her shooting appeared to be justified under the Police Department’s rules that govern when officers can use deadly force, though several questioned some of the tactics used by officers leading up to it.
Others on social media, especially those more critical of the police, wondered whether the officers had needed to use lethal force and if a mental health professional could have helped to de-escalate the situation. But the release of the video this week seemed to underscore the challenges and unpredictability involved in responding to events in which armed individuals experience a mental health crisis.
Ms. Tisch, for her part, has said that the officers who confronted Ms. Cisneros “did exactly what they’re trained to do.”
Following the release of the video, a spokesman for the Police Department declined to comment further.
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