NEW YORK — New York police fatally shot a woman in Times Square on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, after she stabbed two people in attacks Commissioner Jessica Tisch described as random and unprovoked. A 32-year-old woman died at a hospital. A 68-year-old man was taken to Bellevue with life-threatening injuries and later stabilized. Police identified the attacker as Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Tisch said the sequence began about 4:26 p.m. near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue. A witness told investigators Cisneros pulled two knives from a red Target bag, waved them, and stabbed the man in the abdomen as he waited with his wife after leaving the subway. She then moved north on Seventh Avenue toward West 42nd Street and stabbed the 32-year-old woman in the abdomen. The two stabbings were about 20 seconds apart, Tisch said; the second was captured on an NYPD Argus camera.

Witnesses flagged officers. They confronted Cisneros between West 42nd and West 43rd streets, still holding both knives. Tisch said officers spent about four minutes giving "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, according to ABC7 and NBC New York. Officers deployed tasers twice; they did not stop her. Two officers then fired. Both knives were recovered. Body-worn camera recorded the shooting. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the footage would be released and that an internal investigation is underway.

"This was an extraordinarily dangerous situation unfolding in the heart of Times Square, the crossroads of the world," Tisch said. Police said Cisneros had a documented mental-health history with the department in 2018 and 2019 and no criminal arrest record. Officials said the incident was not terror-related. Victim names had not been released pending family notification.

"I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse," Mamdani said at the briefing, ABC7 reported. He said his Office of Community Safety, which pairs mental-health workers with some 911 calls, did not apply here: "that would not be applicable when there is the threat of violence."

The police power on display is the one the city actually uses when a knife is in the street: commands, tasers, then guns. The investigation will decide whether those shots were justified under department rules. The stabbings themselves, on the record the commissioner gave, were over in seconds. NBC New York noted this was the second killing in Times Square this year, after a fatal stabbing in the same area in May, even as citywide homicides are down 24% so far in 2026 — the department's figure.

Sources