Erin Piacenti went back to work after maternity leave and never came home.
Now the woman who killed her – who police had encountered twice for mental health crises – is dead.
And Letitia James is investigating the officers who shot her.
The System Knew Pamela Cisneros and Did Nothing
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed it herself.
In March 2018, officers found Pamela Cisneros in Midtown – screaming, belligerent, intoxicated.
In March 2019, she jumped onto the E train tracks in a suicide attempt and was hospitalized.
Two documented mental health crises. Two police encounters.
A woman who clearly needed long-term psychiatric care.
https://twitter.com/foxnewspolitics/status/2096597824238764339?s=20
She was released both times.
On August 31, 2026, Cisneros walked through Times Square carrying two sword-like knives and stabbed a 32-year-old new mother in the stomach.
Erin Piacenti – Bank of America vice president, law school graduate, wife, and mother back at work for less than a week – died at Bellevue Hospital.
James Attacks the Heroes, Ignores the Failure
New York state law requires the Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation to open a probe whenever police cause a death.
That's the legal cover Letitia James is hiding behind.
The officers ordered Cisneros to drop her weapons.
She moved toward them instead.
They shot her.
They saved lives.
And now James is investigating them for it.
Republican Attorney General candidate Saritha Komatireddy said exactly what every New Yorker is thinking: "The problem is that we have people who are known dangerous individuals, people with documented mental illness. They've been in the courts before, or they've been to the hospitals before. The police know exactly who they are, but we have no ability to take care of them."
https://twitter.com/mazemoore/status/2094505890808242552?s=20
James' campaign fired back that Komatireddy was trying to "score cheap political points off a tragedy."
The tragedy is that the system had two chances to prevent Erin Piacenti's murder and did nothing.
This Is Not a New Problem – New York Has Just Refused to Fix It
The Manhattan Institute documented this cycle years ago.
In 2017, an untreated schizophrenic was discharged from St. Barnabas Hospital after a few hours – and four days later ambushed and killed NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia.
In 2014, Ismaaiyl Brinsley – mentally ill, documented history – ambushed Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu while they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.
The New York Post found that 38 subway assault suspects alone racked up 1,126 combined arrests over their lifetimes.
Same pattern. Same failure.
Same refusal to act.
Greene County Sheriff Peter Kusminsky described what ground-level reality looks like: deputies with no psychiatric training pulled off patrol for mental health calls, no hospital beds available, crisis cases parked in motels with no doctors, no medicine, no therapy.
When a secure psychiatric bed does open up, Kusminsky said, it can take weeks or months to find – and it's often hundreds of miles away.
New York State runs 23 psychiatric centers and 6,500 programs overseen by local governments and nonprofits.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2095194691713012194?s=20
And somehow the woman who tried to kill herself on subway tracks in 2019 ended up walking through Times Square with two knives in 2026.
James Has Her Priorities – and Erin Piacenti Isn't One of Them
Letitia James is currently under federal investigation herself.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency flagged her to the DOJ over allegations she misrepresented key details on a mortgage application – possibly to qualify for more favorable loan terms.
The FBI opened a criminal investigation in May.
Think about what those two things have in common.
Pamela Cisneros slipped through the system twice because nobody filled out the right paperwork, nobody coordinated between the hospital and law enforcement, nobody followed up.
Letitia James allegedly falsified a mortgage application and is now hiding behind the word "clerical."
Same move. Same New York.
Process as cover. Bureaucracy as a shield.
Accountability for nobody.
She cannot explain why Pamela Cisneros was on the streets of New York with two knives seven years after police first found her having a breakdown in Midtown.
https://twitter.com/RealAmVoice/status/2094573620211118324?s=20
Komatireddy's proposed fix is straightforward: create an Office of Civil Commitment staffed jointly by law enforcement and physicians – the only combination that satisfies New York's legal requirement for involuntary commitment.
Nothing like it currently exists in state government.
The people who let Erin Piacenti's killer walk free twice are now investigating the officers who finally stopped her.
New York keeps electing people like Letitia James.
New York keeps burying people like Erin Piacenti.
Sources:
- Elaine Mallon, "Letitia James' Times Square shooting probe draws GOP criticism over New York's mental health crisis," Fox News, September 6, 2026.
- "Bank of America vice president killed in Times Square stabbing spree, NYPD says," Fox 5 NY, September 2, 2026.
- DJ Jaffe, "How to Get Mentally Ill New Yorkers off the Street and into Treatment," Manhattan Institute, 2017.
- "Riding on the Crazy Train," New York Post, March 2024.
- "Letitia James faces re-election battle amid federal investigation," America First News, 2026.
