“DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME”: PAMELA CISNEROS’ FATHER THOUGHT HIS DAUGHTER HAD FINALLY TURNED A CORNER

For years, Pamela Cisneros’ family knew that she struggled with serious mental-health problems.

Her father, Mario Cisneros, tried to make sure she received regular care. He accompanied her to monthly mental-health appointments and helped her stay on a treatment routine that included medication injections.

Then, earlier this year, Pamela told him she could handle things on her own.

She told him not to worry.

Her father believed her.

Months later, Pamela Cisneros was dead after a violent confrontation with police in Times Square — and a 32-year-old Bank of America executive, Erin Piacenti, was dead after being attacked with a knife.

Now Pamela’s family is left trying to understand what happened during the months between those two moments.

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME”

According to Mario Cisneros, his daughter had appeared to be doing better.

After a serious mental-health crisis in 2019, the family became closely involved in her treatment. Mario regularly accompanied Pamela to appointments and helped her maintain the routine that he believed had kept her stable.

But in April, that routine changed.

When her father was preparing to take her to a scheduled appointment at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, Pamela reportedly told him she did not need him to take her anymore.

“No, Dad, don’t worry,” she told him, according to her father.

“I’m good.”

Mario accepted her decision.

He believed his daughter had reached a point where she could manage her own treatment.

That belief would later become one of the most painful parts of the story.

THEN CAME TIMES SQUARE

On August 31, 2026, Pamela, 49, was identified by police as the woman involved in a seemingly random attack in the heart of Manhattan.

Police said she approached a 68-year-old man near West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue and attacked him with a knife before turning toward another victim.

That second victim was Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old Bank of America vice president and lawyer.

Piacenti was transported to Bellevue Hospital but later died from her injuries.

The 68-year-old man survived and was reported to be in stable condition. Authorities described the attack as random and unprovoked.

Pamela then encountered police.

Officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the knives. Police said Tasers were deployed but failed to stop her as she continued moving toward officers.

Two officers ultimately opened fire.

Pamela was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she later died. The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is examining the police shooting.

HER FAMILY SAW A DIFFERENT WOMAN

What makes the tragedy especially difficult for Pamela’s relatives is that they say they had not seen signs that she was about to become violent.

Her brother, Patrick Peralta, said Pamela had appeared stable for years and had never previously shown the kind of aggression seen in Times Square.

Her father also said he had recently seen her and believed she was doing well.

To her family, the woman who appeared in Times Square did not match the daughter and sister they thought they knew.

That leaves a painful question:

What changed?

A HISTORY THE FAMILY COULD NOT IGNORE

Pamela had documented encounters with the NYPD related to her mental health.

Her family said the crisis in 2019 prompted them to become more involved in her care. Her father later described years of treatment and medication intended to help keep her stable.

But the family has not publicly established exactly what happened to her treatment in the months before the Times Square attack.

Reports have raised questions about whether she remained on her medication and whether her condition had deteriorated.

Those questions remain part of the larger effort to understand what led to the attack.

Mental illness alone, however, does not explain or excuse violence — and authorities have not announced a definitive motive for what happened in Times Square.

TWO FAMILIES, TWO TRAGEDIES

While Pamela’s family is trying to understand her final months, another family is mourning Erin Piacenti.

Piacenti had recently returned to work following maternity leave. She was a lawyer and Bank of America vice president, and her family said she had been building a life with her husband and their young daughter.

Her death has left behind a husband, a baby and a family struggling to comprehend how an ordinary afternoon in Manhattan ended in tragedy.

Pamela’s death also means her family will never hear her explain what happened in those final months.

They are left with the words she told her father in April:

“Don’t worry about me.”

He thought she had finally turned a corner.

By the end of August, everything had changed.

And the unanswered question may be the hardest one of all:

What happened between April, when Pamela believed she could manage on her own, and the day she walked into Times Square carrying two knives?