“I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SISTER” — PAMELA CISNEROS’ FAMILY REVISITS THE FINAL WEEKS BEFORE TIMES SQUARE

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

That is the question Pamela Cisneros’ family has been left asking after the 49-year-old woman they had known for decades suddenly became the woman at the center of a shocking Times Square attack.

Because Pamela was not always the person the public saw on August 31.

Her family knew a woman who had struggled with mental-health problems but had also experienced periods of stability.

They knew a mother of three.

A woman who earned a master’s degree in psychology.

Someone who had worked at an immigration law firm and was trying to rebuild her life after the collapse of her marriage.

And they knew Pamela as someone who had spent years living quietly in Queens.

No one in her family appears to have expected what happened next.

But when relatives began looking closely at the weeks leading up to the attack, one moment stood out.

THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE ATTACK

Pamela’s father, Mario Cisneros, had spent years helping his daughter manage her mental-health treatment.

According to his account to The New York Times, after a serious crisis in 2019, he began accompanying Pamela to regular appointments where she received monthly medication injections.

For years, he believed the treatment had helped her become more stable.

Then, earlier this year, something changed.

Mario told The Times that in April, Pamela refused his offer to drive her to one of her regular mental-health appointments at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens.

She told him she could go on her own.

He remembered her reassuring him not to worry.

At the time, he believed she was doing well.

He had no idea that the decision would later become one of the most haunting details in the family’s attempt to understand what happened.

HER FAMILY THOUGHT SHE HAD TURNED A CORNER

Pamela’s relatives had seen difficult periods before.

But they had also seen her recover.

Her father said he had visited her about 10 days before the Times Square attack and that nothing appeared obviously wrong.

ABC News reported that Mario said he had seen Pamela the week before the incident and that she appeared fine. He also described her as not being a violent person.

Her brother Patrick Peralta similarly expressed shock, telling the New York Post that Pamela had appeared stable for a significant period.

That is what makes the final weeks so difficult for the family to process.

There was no simple moment they could point to and say:

“That was when everything changed.”

THEN CAME AUGUST 31

On the afternoon of August 31, Pamela entered one of the busiest places in New York City.

Police say she was carrying two kitchen knives.

Within roughly 20 seconds, two strangers were attacked.

The first victim, a 68-year-old man, was stabbed in the abdomen.

Moments later, Pamela allegedly approached Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old Bank of America vice president and new mother, and stabbed her.

Piacenti later died at a hospital. The older man survived. Police described the attacks as random and unprovoked.

Then Pamela encountered police.

Officers ordered her to drop the knives.

She refused.

Three officers deployed Tasers, but authorities said they had no apparent effect.

Pamela allegedly moved toward the officers while still holding the knives.

Two officers then fired their service weapons, striking her.

She was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The New York Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the police shooting.

THE FAMILY IS LEFT WITH ONE IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION

Pamela’s family is now trying to reconcile two versions of the same woman.

The Pamela they knew — a mother, daughter and sister who had battled serious problems but had also managed periods of stability.

And the Pamela who appeared in Times Square carrying two knives.

Her father has said he does not know what went wrong.

Her brother has expressed similar disbelief.

And investigators have not publicly established a single motive that explains the attack.

What is known is that Pamela had a documented history of mental-health problems. What remains unknown is what was happening in her life during the period immediately before August 31 — and whether anything changed in the weeks leading up to the attack.

Her family’s memories may provide pieces of that timeline.

But they do not yet provide the answer.

Because sometimes the most frightening part of a tragedy is not knowing exactly when someone changed — only realizing afterward that something had already begun to go wrong.