The ᑕrαzєd knife-wielding woman who went on a sudden stabbing rampage near Times Square — before being sH๏τ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ by police — was a mother of three who long struggled with her mєntal health and had multiple erratic run-ins with police, her family and sources revealed Tuesday.
Pamela Cisneros, 49, battled what her stunned brother described as bipolar disorder, but had been getting treatment in recent years — and showed no sign she’d go murderously berserk as she did during terrifying random attacks Monday, he said.
“She never showed any aggressiveness or being violent. I don’t know what happened,” Patrick Peralta, 59, told The Post, adding his sister, a Queens native, had found some stability through medication in recent years and reported feeling “fine” as recently as Saturday.
Court records, meandering social media posts, neighbors and sources paint a portrait of Cisneros living an alternately troubled and tranquil life before she chillingly snapped in the heart of Manhattan — slaying a young Bank of America executive and injuring a Rhode Island man who was in town visiting his son.
Peralta said he last saw his sister in person earlier in August for their stepfather’s birthday — and then again on TV Monday evening during coverage of the disturbing attacks, which he’d initially brushed off as “typical New York crap.”
He said he couldn’t believe it was his sister, until he saw pH๏τographs from the showdown.
“That’s when I found out, then I was concerned. I was hoping it wasn’t her,” he recalled.
Clutching a pair of kitchen knives that she’d been carrying in a red Target bag, police said Cisneros first stabbed Tak Kam, of Rhode Island, in the gut near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue.
She then walked a block and fatally knifed Erin Piacenti, 32, a banking executive from New Jersey, in the abdomen, sources said.
Cops tracked down Cisneros a block away behind an NYPD substation, where a 𝘴h☉𝔠king video captured the confrontation around 4:30 p.m., showing officers first unsuccessfully using stun guns on her as she started to windmill her arms around, holding a knife in each hand.
Police sH๏τ her as she continued approaching them, and she later died of her wounds at Bellevue Hospital, officials said.
Cisneros tried to commit sᩚuᩚiᩚcide several years ago and had been diagnosed with a mєntal health issue, in addition to contending with postpartum depression after her second child’s birth, Peralta said.
“I think bipolar, but I don’t know what else was going on,” he said, noting she received monthly injections for treatment.
“I think maybe she stopped the inje𝔠ti☉n she was getting and that caused her to act the way she was.”
The medication gave a stability to Cisneros that often eluded her.
A belligerent, intoxicated and screaming Cisneros drew NYPD cops along Lexington Avenue during December 2018, sources said.
The mєntal health call wasn’t Cisneros’ last. She tried to commit sᩚuᩚiᩚcide during March 2019 by jumping in front of an E train in Queens, sources said.
Sources also said Cisneros had criminal run-ins with police in Arizona, California and Florida, but details on those cases couldn’t be verified.
Court records show that Cisneros’ marriage fell apart around this time, with her husband filing for divorce in Hillsborough County, Florida, during 2020.
The divorce case – which is sealed – ended in 2025, records show. Attorneys for Cisneros and her ex-husband didn’t return calls for comment.
Peralta said Cisneros has three daughters: Two who live in Florida with their father, while another who’s autistic is in Brooklyn care home.
Often-rambling social media posts hint Cisneros increasingly turned toward religion during the past year. In one of those 2025 posts, she chillingly wrote that the “diminished love of people to the point of stabbing others for no reason” showed the arrival of the biblical end times.
A LinkedIn account with Cisneros’ name states she graduated from Touro University in 2021.
Both Peralta and a neighbor said Cisneros obtained a master’s degree in psychology.
“She was an excellent woman. I don’t know what happened with her,” the neighbor said.
“I’ve known her since she was born.”
Cisneros worked in a law firm for an attorney who helps with the immigration process, Peralta said.
The last time Peralta saw his troubled sister was Aug. 10 for their stepfather’s birthday, he said. She regularly visited their mother as well, but recently stopped, he said.
“There was no sign something was wrong,” he said. “Last week she stopped coming to see my mother.
“We called, she said she was fine on Saturday.”
