“I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SISTER”

That is what Pamela Cisneros’ family was left asking after the woman they had known for years appeared in Times Square on Aug. 31.

Because Pamela was not always the person the public saw that afternoon.

Her family knew a woman who had struggled with mental-health issues in the past, but who, they say, had experienced periods of greater stability. They knew a mother of three. A woman with a master’s degree in psychology. Someone trying to rebuild her life and find work after her marriage fell apart.

They also knew Pamela as someone living a relatively quiet life in Queens.

Then came Times Square.

On Aug. 31, police say Pamela, 49, attacked two strangers with knives in the middle of Manhattan. One victim, 68-year-old Tak Kam, survived. Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old Bank of America vice president and new mother returning home from her first day back at work after maternity leave, was fatally attacked.

Police confronted Pamela moments later.

Officers ordered her to drop the knives. According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, she refused and advanced toward officers while holding the weapons. Officers first used Tasers before firing at her. Pamela was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Authorities have said the attack was not being treated as terrorism.

But for Pamela’s family, another question remains:

What happened to the woman they thought they knew?

HER FAMILY HAD SEEN SIGNS BEFORE

Pamela had a documented history with the NYPD involving mental-health concerns.

According to police, there were incidents involving her in 2019 and 2020. PEOPLE reported that one involved public intoxication, while the other was investigated as a possible suicide attempt. Pamela had no arrest record before the Times Square incident.

Those details now carry a different weight.

Her family says they knew she had struggled before. But knowing someone has faced difficulties is not the same as expecting them to suddenly become the person investigators say appeared in Times Square.

And that is where the timeline becomes important.

THREE WEEKS BEFORE TIMES SQUARE

As relatives look back at Pamela’s final weeks, attention has turned to what was happening in her life shortly before Aug. 31.

The question is not simply whether Pamela had experienced mental-health problems in the past.

It is whether something changed again.

Was there a new crisis?

Was there a moment when people close to her realized she was no longer doing as well as they believed?

Or was the transformation so gradual that nobody understood its significance until it was too late?

Those questions remain unanswered.

What is known is that, on Aug. 31, Pamela’s behavior became dramatically different from the quiet life her family remembered.

And within minutes, two strangers had been attacked in one of New York City’s busiest public spaces.

One of them was Erin Piacenti — a young mother who had just returned to work after five months of maternity leave.

She had been on her way home to her husband and five-month-old daughter.

Instead, her family was left grieving a future that had changed in an instant.

THE QUESTION THAT MAY NEVER HAVE A SIMPLE ANSWER

Pamela’s family is now forced to reconcile two images of the same woman.

The Pamela they knew.

And the Pamela seen in Times Square.

Those two versions of her life now exist in the same timeline.

The difficulty is understanding where one ended — and the other began.

For now, investigators continue examining what led to the Aug. 31 attack, while Pamela’s family is left with a question that may be harder to answer than any police report:

How could someone they knew for years become someone they no longer recognized?