“I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SISTER”: PAMELA CISNEROS’ FAMILY LEFT SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS AFTER TIMES SQUARE ATTACK

“I can’t understand what happened to my sister.”

That is the question Pamela Cisneros’ family is now left asking after the 49-year-old Queens woman appeared in Times Square on Aug. 31 — armed with two knives and at the center of a terrifying confrontation that ended with two people attacked and Cisneros fatally shot by NYPD officers.

But Pamela was not always the woman the public saw that afternoon.

Her family knew a mother of three who had battled mental-health problems for years but, according to relatives, had also experienced a long period of greater stability.

They knew someone who had earned a master’s degree in psychology and had worked at an immigration law firm. They knew a woman who had been trying to rebuild her life after the breakdown of her marriage.

And they knew someone who, according to her brother Patrick Peralta, had never previously shown the kind of aggression witnessed in Times Square.

“She was never aggressive,” Peralta said, describing his sister as someone who had appeared stable for years.

HER FAMILY THOUGHT SHE WAS DOING BETTER

Peralta said Pamela had struggled with her mental health for years and had received regular treatment, including monthly medication injections.

Her father, Mario Cisneros, separately said she had been receiving monthly injections and that he had seen her during the week before the Times Square attack.

To him, she appeared fine.

There was no obvious warning that something catastrophic was about to happen.

That is part of what has made the final days so difficult for the family to understand.

Peralta said Pamela had normally remained connected to her family and would regularly visit her mother for meals.

But then something changed.

The family noticed that she did not show up as usual during the week before the attack.

They tried calling her.

Her mother spoke with Pamela by phone on Saturday, Aug. 29 — just two days before the Times Square violence — and Pamela reportedly said she was fine.

Then came Monday.

FOUR MINUTES IN TIMES SQUARE

Around 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 31, police say Pamela was in the area of West 41st and Seventh Avenue when she allegedly pulled two large knives from a shopping bag.

A 68-year-old man was attacked first.

Moments later, Pamela allegedly attacked 32-year-old Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America vice president who had recently returned to work after maternity leave.

Piacenti was taken to Bellevue Hospital but died from her injuries. The 68-year-old man survived.

Police then confronted Pamela.

According to NYPD officials, officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the knives. Tasers were deployed, but they failed to stop her.

When she allegedly moved toward officers while still armed, two officers opened fire.

Pamela was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

THE QUESTION HER FAMILY CANNOT ANSWER

What happened between the woman Pamela’s family knew and the woman who appeared in Times Square?

Her relatives have raised questions about her mental-health treatment and whether something changed in the weeks before the attack.

But there is currently no official finding establishing that a change in medication caused or contributed to the violence.

Her brother has only said he wondered whether she may have stopped receiving her monthly injections.

That distinction matters.

Investigators have not publicly established a motive for the attacks, and authorities have not said that Pamela’s mental-health history explains what happened.

For her family, however, the mystery remains painfully personal.

They remember the sister who came to dinner.

The mother who raised three children.

The woman who had fought through years of difficulties and, according to those closest to her, seemed to have found a period of stability.

And they are now trying to understand how that life ended in one of the most crowded places in New York City.

The final answer may depend on what happened in the days — and perhaps weeks — before Aug. 31.

Because somewhere between the Pamela her family thought they knew and the woman seen that afternoon in Times Square, something changed.

And her family still does not know exactly when.