Officers fatally shot a 49-year-old woman who had stabbed passers-by, apparently at random, in central New York, killing a 32-year-old woman.
A 49-year-old woman stabbed two people, apparently entirely at random, on Monday afternoon (local time) in Times Square, killing a young woman, before she herself was shot by police.
Authorities said she was Pamela Cisneros, a Queens resident. She pulled two knives from a bag from a well-known supermarket chain and began threatening passers-by, according to Jessica Tisch, New York City’s police commissioner.
She then stabbed a 68-year-old man in the abdomen and, twenty seconds later, a 32-year-old woman, also in the abdomen.
The woman died in hospital. The man is hospitalized in stable condition. The victims’ identities have not been released and will not be made public until their families have been notified.
Officers who arrived on the scene tried to persuade her to give up the weapons.
Videos filmed by bystanders and shared on social media show a woman in a short-sleeved pink T-shirt threatening officers, two knives in her hands.
“Officers tried to speak with this woman for four minutes and repeatedly ordered her to drop the knives, which she refused to do,” Commissioner Tisch said.
“A terrifying attack”
While officers were trying to get her to put the knives down and surrender, she allegedly told them: “I’m not dropping anything. I’d rather kill you,” the NYPD commissioner added.
An eyewitness told television station PIX11 News that the woman “ran past me at the corner” of the streets “holding two knives in her hands.”
He also said officers used a Taser, a non-lethal stun device, to stop her, but she moved toward them and they shot her “twice.”
Police confirmed that one officer used a Taser, without effect, before firearms were used.
A journalist from Agence France-Presse who went to the scene afterward noted a heavy police and emergency presence and saw a pool of blood on the ground.
According to media reports, the 49-year-old woman had been known to police since 2018 and had mental health problems.
“We have no reason to believe this was a terrorist act,” the New York police commissioner said.
The situation was nonetheless “extremely dangerous” because the attack took place “in the heart of Times Square,” where “at any given moment there are thousands of New Yorkers, people going to work, tourists, families walking these streets,” she said.
Standing beside her at the press conference, the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, thanked the officers who responded and stopped “this terrifying attack from becoming even more tragic.”
Source: Article365