Family of Times Square Tragedy Victim Breaks Their Silence With an Emotional Statement After Her Death

Erin Piacenti Had Just Returned From Maternity Leave — Days Later, Her Family Revealed What They Hope Her Daughter Will Always Know
August 31 was supposed to mark a return to something familiar for Erin Piacenti.

After five months at home with her first child, the 32-year-old had returned to work and was beginning to balance a successful career with the new role she had wanted for years.

She was a wife.

A new mother.

A lawyer who had built an impressive professional path.

And a vice president at Bank of America.

Then, during an ordinary journey through Times Square that Monday afternoon, everything changed within seconds.

In the days that followed, however, Erin’s family made one thing clear.

They did not want those final moments to become the story by which she was remembered.

The Violence Began With Someone Else
The attack unfolded shortly before 4:30 p.m. near Seventh Avenue and West 41st Street in Times Square.

Police identified the woman involved as Pamela Cisneros, 49, of Queens.

According to authorities, Cisneros was carrying two large kitchen knives inside a red shopping bag.

The first person attacked was 68-year-old Tak Kam.

Kam had reportedly just emerged from a subway station and was waiting with his wife to cross the street.

Police said Cisneros stabbed him in the abdomen.

He survived.

But the incident was not over.

Authorities said Cisneros continued north.

Within roughly 20 seconds, another stranger encountered her.

That person was Erin.

Erin Had No Known Connection to Her Attacker
Police described the attacks as random and unprovoked.

There was no reported indication that Erin knew Cisneros beforehand.

Erin was stabbed in the abdomen.

Emergency responders rushed her to Bellevue Hospital.

Doctors were unable to save her.

She was pronounced dead at only 32 years old.

Kam was also taken to the hospital and was expected to survive.

Meanwhile, officers were confronting Cisneros nearby.

And the situation remained dangerous.

Police Tried to Get Cisneros to Drop the Knives
Authorities said officers found Cisneros holding a knife in each hand.

They repeatedly ordered her to put the weapons down.

The confrontation lasted several minutes.

Police attempted to use Tasers.

The New York Attorney General’s Office later said three officers discharged Tasers with no apparent effect.

Authorities said Cisneros then moved toward officers while still holding the knives.

Two officers fired their service weapons.

Cisneros was struck.

She was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation has opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, as required under state procedures involving deaths potentially caused by police officers.

Those events explain what happened that afternoon.

But they explain very little about who Erin Piacenti was.

For that, her family offered a very different story.

She Had Just Become a Mother
Five months before her death, Erin and her husband, Frank, welcomed their first child.

They named her Madison.

According to the family’s statement, becoming a mother had been Erin’s lifelong ambition.

Madison brought her enormous joy.

August 31 was Erin’s first day back at work following her maternity leave.

That detail made the timing of the tragedy especially painful.

Only days earlier, her life had been centered on the milestones of a young family.

She and Frank had celebrated their second wedding anniversary that summer.

They had recently returned from a family road trip.

They were preparing for the years ahead with their baby daughter.

Then one afternoon changed those plans completely.

Her Professional Life Was Remarkable Too
Erin’s accomplishments had begun long before Bank of America.

She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied political science.

But academics were not her only interest.

She also sang in an a cappella group, showing a creative side far removed from the legal and financial career she would later build.

After Penn, she eventually attended Fordham University School of Law.

There, she met Frank.

Erin graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into the Order of the Coif, an honor society recognizing strong academic achievement among law graduates.

During her final year, she also served as editor of Fordham’s Kaufman Competition, a demanding securities-law competition involving law-school teams from around the country.

People who knew her there remembered more than her grades.

They remembered her ability.

Her organization.

Her warmth.

And the ease with which she seemed to manage difficult responsibilities.

But Erin’s family would later emphasize that even these achievements captured only a fraction of her life.

Her Career Continued to Rise
Erin’s professional journey included work at Bloomingdale’s before she moved deeper into law.

She later worked at the major law firm Davis Polk.

Eventually, she joined Bank of America.

By the time of her death, she had become a vice president.

Bank of America expressed shock and sadness after learning of her death and described her as a valued colleague.

At only 32, Erin had already built the type of résumé that suggested much more was still ahead.

Yet the people closest to her did not begin their remembrance with titles or degrees.

They began with relationships.

Wife.

Mother.

Daughter.

Sister.

Friend.

And that distinction became especially important after her death.

Her Family Asked People to Look Beyond the Headline
A fundraiser established with the involvement of Erin’s family described the attack as random, senseless and unprovoked.

But almost immediately, the message turned away from the circumstances of her death.

Her loved ones wanted people to understand how she had lived.

They described Erin as exceptionally bright and accomplished.

They remembered her devotion to her family and friends.

They remembered the warmth and energy she brought to the people around her.

Her career mattered.

Her education mattered.

But those things were not the whole person.

To those closest to Erin, her greatest new role had arrived only five months earlier.

She was Madison’s mother.

And that is where the family’s focus began shifting toward the future.

Frank and Erin Had Been Building a Life Together
Erin and Frank had recently celebrated two years of marriage.

Their daughter was still an infant.

The young family had recently traveled together.

They had years of ordinary milestones ahead of them.

First words.

First steps.

Birthdays.

School days.

Family vacations.

The countless small experiences that normally accumulate slowly across childhood.

Those expectations disappeared in an instant for Erin.

But her family’s hopes did not disappear entirely.

Instead, they began centering on Madison.

The Fundraiser Is Really About What Comes Next
The fundraiser established after Erin’s death was created to support Madison as she grows.

The money is intended to help provide care, opportunity and stability for the child Erin loved so deeply.

But the family’s message revealed another goal that cannot be measured financially.

They want Madison to know her mother.

At five months old, Madison will not have the chance to build the memories with Erin that her family expected.

So other people will have to preserve them for her.

Family members.

Friends.

Colleagues.

Photographs.

Stories.

Memories of the woman Erin was before August 31.

The fundraiser describes a hope that Madison will grow surrounded by people and memories that allow her to understand how remarkable her mother was.

And that may be the most personal part of the entire story.

Erin’s Final Day Is Not the Story Her Family Wants to Leave Behind
Violent deaths often become inseparable from the places where they happen.

Times Square.

A stabbing.

Police.

An investigation.

Those details become headlines because they explain the event.

But they do not explain the person.

For Erin’s family, 32 years cannot be reduced to several seconds on a Monday afternoon.

Her story also includes the student singing with friends at Penn.

The law student who excelled at Fordham.

The young professional building a career.

The wife beginning a marriage with Frank.

And finally, the woman experiencing something her family says she had always wanted.

Motherhood.

One Day Changed Madison’s Future — But It Will Not Erase Her Mother’s Past
Madison was only five months old when Erin died.

She is too young to remember the maternity leave her mother treasured.

She will not remember their recent family road trip.

She will not remember how Erin held her during those first months.

Those memories belong, for now, to the people who were there.

One day, they can give them back to her through stories.

That is the deeper purpose behind the family’s response.

The goal is not simply to tell Madison that her mother died.

It is to make sure she grows up knowing how Erin lived.

That she was loved.

That she was accomplished.

That she had friendships and dreams.

That she built a marriage.

And that becoming Madison’s mother brought her profound happiness.

The attack in Times Square explains why Erin Piacenti is gone.

But if her family succeeds in what they are trying to preserve, it will never become the thing that explains who she was.

Madison will grow up without her mother beside her.

But she does not have to grow up without knowing her.

And that is where Erin’s loved ones are now placing one of their most important hopes for the future