Four days before she was killed in Times Square, Erin Piacenti shared a picture that captured what her life looked like at its happiest.She was smiling, holding her infant daughter, standing beside her husband, Frank. She had just returned to work after five months of maternity leave, grateful for the time she had been able to spend with her new baby.Then, in a matter of minutes, that ordinary, happy life was gone.Piacenti, 32, a Bank of America vice president and Ivy League graduate, was fatally stabbed in what New York police described as a “random and unprovoked” attack in the heart of Times Square.She wasn’t the only person hurt. A 68-year-old man was also stabbed and taken to a hospital.For Piacenti’s family, though, the loss is far bigger than the shocking circumstances of her death. She was a wife. A new mother. A granddaughter. A daughter. And a young woman who had built a promising career while starting a family of her own.Who was Erin Piacenti?Piacenti graduated from the University of Pennsylvania before earning her law degree from Fordham Law School.She graduated from Fordham in 2021 alongside her husband, Frank Piacenti. The law school later said it was heartbroken by her death.Professionally, Piacenti worked at Bank of America as a vice president in the bank’s business selection and conflicts unit, according to her LinkedIn profile.Her colleagues remembered her with deep sadness after news of the attack emerged.“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague,” Bank of America said in a statement.But outside of her career, Piacenti had recently entered a completely different chapter of her life: motherhood.
She had just returned from maternity leave
Piacenti had taken five months away from the bank after the birth of her daughter.And just days before her death, she appeared to be enjoying those precious months with her family.According to the New York Times, she had posted about her happiness, sharing a photo with her husband and their baby. The family had also been travelling, visiting places including Long Beach, New Jersey, Maine and Rhode Island.Her daughter had recently been baptised. And Piacenti and Frank had just celebrated their second wedding anniversary.It was a glimpse of a young family making memories together.Four days later, Piacenti was dead.Her grandmother remembered her simply and painfully as a “beautiful, beautiful girl.”
A sudden attack in the middle of Times Square
The attack happened in one of the busiest parts of New York City, an area filled with tourists, commuters, theaters and police officers.Authorities said Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens, pulled two knives from a shopping bag and attacked the 68-year-old man before turning on Piacenti.Police officers confronted Cisneros and ordered her to put down the knives.According to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, officers tried for several minutes to persuade her to surrender. They eventually used a stun gun, but it failed to stop her.Police said Cisneros continued moving toward officers while holding the knives. Two officers then opened fire, killing her.Piacenti died from her injuries.
A family left with questions
Police later said Cisneros had a history of mental-health-related encounters with officers in 2018 and 2019, although she had no New York City arrest record.Her brother, Patrick Peralta, told Gothamist that Cisneros had struggled with psychiatric problems for decades. He said, however, that she had not been aggressive and had appeared to be doing better in recent years.She was a divorced mother of three and had worked on and off in a legal office.Peralta said he last saw her at a family birthday gathering early the previous month. She had skipped family dinners the week before the attack but told their mother during a phone call that she was okay.Then came the news from Times Square.“We really don’t know how to express or how to explain why this happened,” Peralta said, while expressing sympathy for Piacenti’s family and the other victim.
A life remembered for what it was, not how it ended
The circumstances of Piacenti’s death are shocking. But they aren’t the whole story of who she was.She was 32 years old.She had graduated from two respected universities, built a career in law and banking, married the man who had studied alongside her, and recently welcomed a daughter.Just four days before her death, she was smiling in a photograph with her husband and baby, celebrating the life they had begun together.Now, her family is left to raise that little girl with memories of the mother she barely had the chance to know.A life that had seemed to be entering one of its happiest chapters ended without warning, in a place where thousands of people pass every day.For those who knew Erin Piacenti, she will be remembered not simply as the woman killed in a Times Square stabbing, but as the wife, mother, granddaughter and colleague whose life was taken far too soon.
