The emotionally disturbed woman who was fatally shot by police in Times Square after she stabbed two people, killing one of them, repeatedly challenged cops to “come get” her because she was “tired of this world,” as officers tried to calm her down, NYPD body camera footage of the harrowing incident released Saturday shows.
“You’re going to have to kill me,” Pamela Cisneros told cops near the corner of Seventh Ave. and W. 43rd St. as she held two Farberware knives in front of her on the afternoon of Aug. 31.
Arriving officers spent more than four minutes calmly talking to Cisneros, trying to get her to drop the knives, according to the body camera footage, but she wouldn’t comply.
“I’m tired of this world already,” Cisneros, 49, said, according to the videos. “I’m tired of this s—. I’ve been through so much s— already.”
Moments earlier, Cisneros, who had a history of mental health issues, had pulled the knives from a red Target bag and stabbed a 69-year-old man in the abdomen near W. 41st St. and Seventh Ave.
Within 20 seconds, the violence continued as Cisneros headed north to W. 42nd St. and stabbed Erin Piacenti, 32, of Chester, N.J., in the stomach, killing her. Piacenti was a vice president at nearby Bank of America. She had just returned to work that Monday after recently giving birth to a baby daughter.
Police Officer Ryan Brito, one of the first cops to arrive at the scene, kept asking her what was going on and encouraged her to calm down.
“Talk to us,” he implored Cisneros. “What’s going on? Breathe.”
“Come get me,” Cisneros reportedly told the officers.
“We’re not doing this now,” another cop at the scene said, according to the video footage.
“Yes, you are.”
“We’re not going to kill you,” Brito assured her. “We don’t want to fight you. Why would we want to do that? We’re trying to help you.”
“Yes, you are. Yes, you are,” Cisneros said calmly. “Either that or I’ll kill all of you.”
“Do you believe in God?” Brito asked her.
“No. Not anymore,” she said. “I’m tired of this fight. I’m tired of this world already.”
“The world is hard, especially in New York City,” Brito said. “I know New York City is hard. Trust me, we all suffer. But this is not the way.”
“It’s the only way out,” Cisneros countered.
“I’ve been through some s— myself,” Brito said, trying to connect with Cisneros. “I’ve been where you at right now. I promise you. I used to work at Wendy’s. I’ve been down there.”
At one point, Cisneros seemed confused, asking the officers, “You two part of the show?”
With a half dozen cops surrounding her, Cisneros began pinwheeling her arms and swinging the knives as she charged at the officers. Two cops fired their tazers, but they weren’t effective. As Cisneros got within a few feet of the officers, Police Officers Joseph O’Connor and Steven Darcy pulled their weapons and fired off three rounds.
Cisneros was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where she died.
Neither O’Connor nor Darcy has a disciplinary history with the NYPD. O’Connor has been with the NYPD for four years. Darcy has three.
The NYPD Force Investigations Division was investigating Cisneros’ death.
“This was an extraordinarily dangerous situation unfolding in the heart of Times Square, the crossroads of the world,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said following the shooting. “Our officers were confronted with a rapidly evolving threat with countless innocent people around them. In that moment, they did what we trained them to do.”
Tisch said Cisneros has a history of mental health issues, including incidents in 2018 and 2019. Cisneros has no criminal record in New York City.
New York City has struggled with the care and treatment of the mentally ill for years. The shutdown of large-scale psychiatric institutions left a void in the system, as the community-based care network that was supposed to fill the gap is widely seen as inadequate and underfunded.
Relatives told the Daily News that Cisneros had a decades-long history of mental illness, including postpartum depression, multiple hospitalizations — and a suicide attempt in which she threw herself on the subway tracks. Because she had trouble taking daily psychiatric medication, Cisneros was prescribed monthly injections instead, her brother Patrick Peralta said.
“For the last six years now, she was getting injections and nothing was wrong,” he told The News following her death. “As long as she got the medication, she was fine … She never showed any violence towards anybody.”
“She used to go in person (to get the injections) and then I just found out that now she was doing it herself,” he added. “So I don’t know if she stopped doing it, because my parents are old and are they trying to check to make sure that she was getting injections. That’s the only thing I can suggest, that maybe she didn’t get the last couple of months of injections.”
“Her brain was going all over,” he said.
