A 32-year-old woman was killed and another person hospitalized following a stabbing in Times Square, New York City, late Wednesday afternoon. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the suspect, a woman wielding two knives, was shot by police. All three were taken to hospital, where the female victim and the suspect later died. The second victim is in stable condition. The mayor thanked NYPD officers for preventing a "horrific attack from becoming even worse."
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the attack an "unprovoked double stabbing" that occurred within approximately 20 seconds. Police received several 911 calls at approximately 16:24 local time (21:00 BST) reporting a woman with two knives stabbing people along Seventh Avenue. The incident is believed to have begun near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue.
A witness told investigators that the suspect removed two knives from a red Target bag before approaching a 68-year-old man who had just exited the subway and was standing with his wife. She waved the knives and stabbed him in the right side of his abdomen in what appears to be a random and unprovoked attack. The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital and is now stable.
The suspect continued up Seventh Avenue towards 42nd Street, where she stabbed a second victim, who later died. Police tried to get her to drop her weapons, speaking to her for four minutes. During the encounter, she told officers, "I'm not dropping anything, I'd rather kill both of you," and repeated "I will kill you." Tasers were ineffective, and police then shot the woman, who was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
The suspect was identified as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens. She had never been arrested but had a documented mental health history with the NYPD, with incidents in 2018 and 2019. A tourist from Boston, Melinda Puzon, told CBS News she heard shots and saw "so many people on the street."