{"id":668152,"date":"2026-09-02T05:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T05:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/668152\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T05:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T05:04:13","slug":"times-square-stabbers-brother-reveals-her-longtime-struggle-with-mental-health-possible-bipolar-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/668152\/","title":{"rendered":"Times Square stabber’s brother reveals her longtime struggle with mental health, possible bipolar diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crazed knife-wielding <\/a>woman who went on a sudden stabbing rampage near Times Square \u2014 before being shot dead by police \u2014 was a mother of three who long struggled with her mental health and had multiple erratic run-ins with police, her family and sources revealed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Pamela Cisneros, 49, battled what her stunned brother described as bipolar disorder, but had been getting treatment in recent years \u2014 and showed no sign she\u2019d go murderously berserk<\/a> as she did during terrifying random attacks Monday, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe never showed any aggressiveness or being violent. I don\u2019t know what happened,\u201d Patrick Peralta, 59, told The Post, adding his sister, a Queens native, had found some stability through medication in recent years and reported feeling \u201cfine\u201d as recently as Saturday.<\/p>\n

Court records, meandering social media posts, neighbors and sources paint a portrait of Cisneros living an alternately troubled and tranquil life before she chillingly snapped in the heart of Manhattan \u2014 slaying a young Bank of America executive and injuring a Rhode Island man who was in town visiting his son.<\/p>\n

Patrick Peralta \u2014 brother of Pamela Cisneros who fatally stabbed a woman and injured another person in the heart of Times Square on Monday \u2014 broke silence on his sister mental health issues. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

Pamela Cisneros, 49, lunges toward police officers near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue in Times Square. She was later shot by NYPD on the spot. @bboypop97\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Pamela Cisneros\u2019 brother said she never showed signs of violence despite her mental health troubles. Facebook\/Pamela Cisneros<\/p>\n

Peralta\u00a0said he last saw his sister in person earlier in August for their stepfather\u2019s birthday \u2014 and then again on TV Monday evening during coverage of the disturbing attacks, which he\u2019d initially brushed off as\u00a0\u201ctypical New York crap.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he couldn\u2019t believe it was his sister, until he saw photographs from the showdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I found out, then I was concerned. I was hoping it wasn\u2019t her,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Clutching a pair of kitchen knives that she\u2019d been carrying in a red Target bag, police said Cisneros first stabbed Tak Kam, of Rhode Island, in the gut near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue.<\/p>\n

Pamela Cisneros, 49, is seen in an undated photo. Cisneros was fatally shot by police after stabbing two people \u2014 one fatally \u2014 in Times Square. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Knives recovered at the scene are shown on Monday, August 31, 2026, near West 42nd Street and 7th Avenue in Times Square, Manhattan. Kyle Mazza-UNF News via CNP\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

She then walked a block and fatally knifed Erin Piacenti, 32, a banking executive from New Jersey, in the abdomen, sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cops tracked down Cisneros a block away behind an NYPD substation, where a shocking video captured the confrontation around 4:30 p.m., showing officers first unsuccessfully using stun guns on her as she started to windmill her arms around, holding a knife in each hand.<\/p>\n

Follow the latest on the tragic stabbings in Times Square:<\/p>\n

Police shot her as she continued approaching them, and she later died of her wounds at Bellevue Hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n

Cisneros tried to commit suicide in 2019 and had been diagnosed with a mental health issue, in addition to contending with postpartum depression after her second child\u2019s birth, Peralta said.<\/p>\n

Peralta said his sister might have had bipolar disorder. Facebook\/Pamela Cisneros<\/p>\n

\u201cI think bipolar, but I don\u2019t know what else was going on,\u201d he said, noting she received monthly injections for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think maybe she stopped the injection she was getting and that caused her to act the way she was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medication gave a stability to Cisneros that often eluded her.<\/p>\n

A belligerent, intoxicated and screaming Cisneros drew NYPD cops along Lexington Avenue during December 2018, sources said.<\/p>\n

The mental health call wasn\u2019t Cisneros\u2019 last. She tried to commit suicide during March 2019 by jumping in front of an E train in Queens, sources said.<\/p>\n

Cisneros pictured after graduating from Hunter College in a photo posted in 2017. Facebook\/Pamela Cisneros<\/p>\n

Sources also said Cisneros had criminal run-ins with police in Arizona, California and Florida, but details on those cases couldn\u2019t be verified.<\/p>\n

Court records show that Cisneros\u2019 marriage fell apart around this time, with her husband filing for divorce in Hillsborough County, Florida, during 2020.<\/p>\n

The divorce case \u2013 which is sealed \u2013 ended in 2025, records show. Attorneys for Cisneros and her ex-husband didn\u2019t return calls for comment.<\/p>\n

Peralta said Cisneros has three daughters: Two who live in Florida with their father, while another who\u2019s autistic is in Brooklyn care home.<\/p>\n

Cisneros pictured with her nieces and nephews in 2018. Facebook\/Pamela Cisneros<\/p>\n

Often-rambling social media posts hint Cisneros increasingly turned toward religion during the past year. In one of those 2025 posts, she chillingly wrote that the \u201cdiminished love of people to the point of stabbing others for no reason\u201d showed the arrival of the biblical end times.<\/p>\n

A LinkedIn account with Cisneros\u2019 name states she graduated from Touro University in 2021.<\/p>\n

Both Peralta and a neighbor said Cisneros obtained a master\u2019s degree in psychology.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was an excellent woman. I don\u2019t know what happened with her,\u201d the neighbor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known her since she was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cisneros worked in a law firm for an attorney who helps with the immigration process, Peralta said.<\/p>\n

The last time Peralta saw his troubled sister was Aug. 10 for their stepfather\u2019s birthday, he said. She regularly visited their mother as well, but recently stopped, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no sign something was wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cLast week she stopped coming to see my mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe called, she said she was fine on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crazed knife-wielding woman who went on a sudden stabbing rampage near Times Square \u2014 before being shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[276],"tags":[2111,18,135,19,17,167,502,710,85510,282156,129019,38232,4222],"class_list":["post-668152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-deaths","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-metro","tag-nypd","tag-police-shootings","tag-stabbings","tag-times-square","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117199704063167180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}