The Bank of America executive who was fatally stabbed by a knife-wielding woman in Times Square was a new mother who had just returned from maternity leave.
Erin Piacenti, 32, of Chester, New Jersey, was heading home from work on Monday when she stopped briefly in front of a vendor selling sunglasses and baseball hats on the street, according to The New York Times.
It was during that brief stop that she was fatally slashed in the stomach by Pamela Cisneros Lopez, 49, who also left a 68-year-old man seriously injured in the moments before she was gunned down by police.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Piacenti worked as Bank of America’s vice president of business selection and conflicts.
But she had just started her first week back on the job after returning from maternity leave when she was killed, the Times reports.
She had just given birth five months ago, according to a woman who identified herself to the Times as Piacenti’s grandmother-in-law and described the young executive as a ‘beautiful, beautiful girl.’
Piacenti posted a photo of herself on social media holding her newborn daughter and standing next to her husband, Frank, just four days before her death.
She had also written about how grateful she was to have spent the past five months on maternity leave, and shared that her daughter was baptized as she and Frank celebrated their second wedding anniversary.
Erin Piacenti, 32, of Chester, New Jersey, was fatally stabbed in Times Square on her way home from work on Monday
Piancenti had recently celebrated her second wedding anniversary with her husband, Frank
The two had graduated from Fordham Law School in 2021, and were married in August 2024.
The Chester community is now grappling with the young mother’s sudden loss.
‘This definitely shakes us up,’ said resident Megan O’Hara.
‘It’s gotten scarier to go into the city because of things happening like this,’ she continued, noting that many of the borough’s residents commute to New York City for work.
‘This feels close to home,’ O’Hara said. ‘It’s like a family member passed away.’
Terrifying footage from the scene showed officers firing a Taser at Lopez, from Queens, as she waved two kitchen knives at them.
Police then shot the woman, and she immediately fell to the ground where she was handcuffed and given first aid.
Pamela Cisneros Lopez, 49, was fatally gunned down after running at officers with the two kitchen knives
Footage showed officers hitting Lopez with a Taser as she waved the blades at them, but it was not enough to stop her running at them
In the moments prior to the video, Lopez pulled two knives from a shopping bag and stabbed Kam, who was waiting to cross the street with his wife, police said.
Lopez is then said to have stabbed Piacenti in the abdomen, who died from her injuries.
At a press conference alongside Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Lopez had told officers during a brief standoff: ‘I’m not dropping anything, I would rather kill both of you.’
Tisch told reporters: ‘This was an extraordinarily dangerous situation unfolding in the heart of Times Square, the crossroads of the world.
‘At any given moment, there are thousands of New Yorkers, commuters, tourists, families, workers moving through these streets.’
She added that Lopez has a ‘documented mental health history’ with the department which included two incidents in 2018 and 2019 but she was never arrested.
Both Tisch and Mayor Mamdani praised the officers, saying more people could have been hurt or killed if not for their actions.
Piancenti was stabbed in the abdomen and was pronounced dead at a local hospital
Officers are seen here investigating the scene on Monday night in the middle of Times Square
The incident had initially been reported as a knifepoint robbery, but officers believe the emotionally disturbed woman had no clear motive for the attack, ABC 7 reports.
A witness recorded the moment with his smart glasses and described Lopez as being armed with two knives. They told PIX11: ‘She ran down, the cops went by, they surrounded her, talked to her for like five minutes.’
Witness Linda Ruiz also shared what she saw in the moments before police arrived on scene.
‘I saw a guy bleeding profusely from his right leg,’ she told the Daily News. ‘He was gushing blood, saying “I need help. Help me.”‘
‘I went to get a cop on the corner and there was another lady on the floor,’ Ruiz continued. ‘She was stabbed in the back or in the chest, I couldn’t tell.’
‘There was a lot of blood,’ Ruiz noted. ‘She wasn’t conscious. The police were trying to resuscitate her, but she wasn’t moving. It was horrible.’
Hassan Abdallah, who works at a fruit cart stand on 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, two blocks away, said he watched as a woman tended to the male stabbing victim, who appeared to be her husband.
‘I heard a lady screaming and then people were running like crazy,’ he recounted. ‘I went outside [the cart]. I saw an old guy, like 60, Asian. He was standing, holding his back. He got stabbed.
‘His wife was trying to stop the bleeding. She was using a book or some paper, then someone gave her a scarf. I gave him a paper towel. His wife told him to lay on the floor.’
Police are investigating. Tisch said there was no evidence suggesting it was a terrorist attack.
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