For Erin Piacenti’s family, the hardest part of the past few days has not been trying to understand how she died.
It has been trying to describe everything she was before that moment.
The 32-year-old Bank of America vice president was fatally stabbed in Times Square on Monday afternoon, August 31, in what police have described as a random and unprovoked attack. She had just completed her first day back at work after five months of maternity leave.
She left behind her husband, Frank Piacenti, and their five-month-old daughter, Madison.
Now, as investigators continue examining the circumstances surrounding the deadly attack, Erin’s family has publicly spoken about the woman they knew — a wife, daughter, sister, friend, professional and new mother whose life had been centered increasingly around the family she and Frank had just begun building.
Their statement was shared through a fundraiser established to support Madison’s future.
The family said they were “devastated” by Erin’s death and asked for privacy while they grieve.
But rather than allowing the final moments of Erin’s life to define her, they chose to focus on the years that came before them.
“Erin’s life was defined not by the circumstances of her death, but instead by the way she lived,” the family said in the statement shared through the fundraiser.
They described Erin as deeply devoted to the people around her, exceptionally bright and accomplished, and someone whose warmth and energy left an impression on those who knew her.
That description offers a glimpse into the life that was suddenly interrupted in one of Manhattan’s busiest public spaces.
A new mother returning to work
The timing of the attack has made the tragedy particularly painful.
Erin had spent the previous five months on maternity leave after welcoming Madison, her first child with Frank.
According to the family’s statement, becoming a mother had been a lifelong ambition for Erin. The arrival of Madison had brought her enormous happiness.
August 31 was supposed to mark a return to another part of her life — her career.
Instead, it became the day she was killed.
Erin had been working as a vice president at Bank of America and was part of the company’s Business Selection and Conflicts group. She had joined the bank roughly 18 months before the attack.
The circumstances of her death were especially shocking because there was no indication that she knew the woman who attacked her.
Police said Erin was walking through the Times Square area when she was stabbed by Pamela Cisneros, a 49-year-old Queens woman who had approached the area carrying two large knives.
The attack unfolded in broad daylight on West 42nd Street near Seventh Avenue.
Another person, a 68-year-old man identified as Tak Kam, was also stabbed during the incident. He survived and was hospitalized.
Erin was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
What happened in Times Square
According to police, Cisneros first stabbed the male victim before attacking Erin.
Officers responded quickly and confronted Cisneros while she was still armed with the knives.
Police attempted to get her to drop the weapons. She refused.
Authorities said officers eventually used a Taser, but Cisneros continued moving toward them while holding the knives. Two officers then opened fire.
Cisneros was taken to Bellevue Hospital and later died from her injuries.
Because Cisneros died during the encounter with police, there are now two separate investigative questions surrounding the incident: the circumstances that led to the stabbing itself and the circumstances surrounding the police shooting.
The New York Attorney General’s Office announced that its Office of Special Investigation was examining the police shooting, a standard procedure when someone dies during a law-enforcement encounter.
That investigation does not change the basic account of what happened to Erin, but it means authorities are separately reviewing the officers’ use of deadly force.
Who was Pamela Cisneros?
Police identified the attacker as Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens.
Authorities have said Cisneros had previous mental-health-related encounters with police but did not have a New York City criminal record.
According to reporting based on police records, one earlier encounter occurred in December 2018, when officers found her screaming and acting belligerently in Midtown. She was determined to be intoxicated at the time.
Another encounter occurred in March 2019, when police responded after she attempted to jump in front of a subway train at the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station.
Her brother has also spoken about her history of mental-health struggles and said she had been taking medication and appeared stable in recent years.
However, authorities have not publicly established a specific motive for the Times Square attack.
That distinction matters.
The attack has been described by police as random and unprovoked, but investigators are still working to understand what led Cisneros to attack two strangers that afternoon.
Erin’s family wants people to remember her differently
The family’s statement places much of its emphasis on Erin’s life away from the crime scene.
She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied political science and participated in the university’s a cappella group Dischord.
She later attended Fordham University School of Law, graduating magna cum laude in 2021.
Frank also graduated from Fordham Law that same year.
At Fordham, Erin became involved in the Kaufman Competition, an annual securities-law competition, and was selected as its editor during her final year. Former classmates and school officials have described her as highly intelligent, organized, warm and generous.
Her professional career eventually took her to Bank of America after several years at the law firm Davis Polk.
But her family stressed that those accomplishments represented only one part of who she was.
To them, she was first a daughter and sister.
She was a loyal friend.
She was Frank’s partner.
And most recently, she was Madison’s mother.
That final role had only just begun.
The life Erin and Frank were building
Erin and Frank married in August 2024.
The couple had recently celebrated their second wedding anniversary, and their daughter was five months old when Erin was killed.
The family had also recently returned from a road trip together, visiting destinations including Long Beach Island, Newport, Rhode Island, and Maine.
They had been preparing for a new stage of their lives as a family of three.
That future was abruptly destroyed on a Manhattan sidewalk.
The fundraiser created for Madison says the money raised will be dedicated to helping Erin’s daughter as she grows up surrounded by the stories, memories and family members who can tell her about the mother she was too young to remember.
The campaign quickly drew an extraordinary response.
Within days, hundreds of thousands of dollars had been donated by people who had never met Erin or her family.
By September 3, reports said the fundraiser had climbed to nearly $750,000, with thousands of people contributing.
The response has transformed the fundraiser into something more than financial assistance.
It has become a public memorial to a woman whose daughter will grow up without her.
A community grieving far beyond Manhattan
Erin’s death has affected people in several communities at once.
Her colleagues at Bank of America are mourning a coworker who had been building a career in the financial industry.
Fordham Law is mourning a former student.
The University of Pennsylvania is remembering an alumna.
And in Chester, New Jersey, where Erin lived with her husband and daughter, residents have been shaken by the fact that someone from their community was killed while simply making her way through Manhattan.
Bank of America said it was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the loss of its colleague and described Erin as a valued teammate.
Fordham Law Dean Joseph Landau also remembered Erin as a vibrant and cherished member of the law-school community, highlighting her academic dedication and generosity toward her peers.
For people who knew her personally, however, the professional titles do not tell the full story.
The person they are mourning was someone who had only recently become a mother and who was beginning to build a home and family with her husband.
The unanswered questions
Investigators still have important questions to answer about Monday’s attack.
Why did Cisneros approach the two victims?
What prompted the sudden violence?
Was there a specific trigger that investigators have not yet disclosed?
And what will the ongoing review of the police shooting ultimately determine?
Authorities have not publicly announced a motive that explains why Erin and the other victim were targeted.
Cisneros cannot be questioned or prosecuted because she died after being shot by police.
That leaves investigators to reconstruct the attack through witness accounts, surveillance footage, physical evidence and other information collected at the scene.
The police shooting itself is also being reviewed by the New York Attorney General’s Office.
For Erin’s family, however, those investigations cannot undo what happened.
They can only, perhaps, provide answers.
A five-month-old daughter growing up without her mother
The most painful part of Erin’s story may be the life her daughter will never get to experience with her.
Madison was only five months old when her mother was killed.
She will grow up hearing about Erin from her father, grandparents, relatives, friends and former classmates.
She will hear about her mother’s academic achievements and professional career.
She will hear about the music Erin loved and the people she cared about.
She will hear about the woman who spent five months at home after Madison was born and who was grateful for every day with her daughter.
And she will eventually learn that the first day her mother returned to work after maternity leave was also the day her life was taken.
That is why Erin’s family has repeatedly tried to redirect attention toward the person she was rather than simply the way she died.
The fundraiser’s message is clear: Madison should know her mother through the life she lived, not only through the tragedy that ended it.
Erin’s story is now larger than the attack
The Times Square stabbing has understandably drawn attention because of where it happened, how quickly the violence unfolded and the fact that police ultimately shot the attacker.
But behind those headlines is a family trying to come to terms with an unimaginable loss.
Erin Piacenti was 32.
She was a wife.
She was a daughter and sister.
She was a Bank of America vice president and a Fordham Law graduate.
And she was the mother of a five-month-old girl.
On August 31, she had returned to work after spending months with her new daughter.
By the end of that afternoon, she was dead.
Her family now hopes that the attention surrounding her death will not be the final chapter of her story.
Instead, they want Erin to be remembered for the life she built, the people she loved and the daughter who was the greatest joy of her life.
The criminal circumstances surrounding the Times Square attack remain under investigation, as does the police shooting of Cisneros.
But for Erin’s family, there is one part of the story that does not require further investigation.
She was deeply loved.
And for Madison, that love is now something she will have to learn through the memories of everyone who knew her mother.
The family has asked for privacy as they grieve and has encouraged those who wish to help to support the fundraiser established for Madison’s future.
The goal is not simply to raise money.
It is to make sure that, as Madison grows older, she has the opportunity to know the woman her mother was — not only the stranger who was taken from her on a crowded Manhattan street.
Because Erin’s life did not begin in Times Square.
And it should not be remembered only by how it ended.