I’ve known her since the day she was born: A neighbor of Pamela Cisneros recalls her transformation from a psychology master’s student to someone suffering from bipolar disorder.

That account stands in haunting contrast to the events that unfolded in Times Square.

For years, Pamela reportedly led a relatively quiet life in Queens.

Then, in the span of a single afternoon, everything changed.

The neighbor saw a different woman.

The public saw a different image.

And somewhere between those two versions of Pamela Cisneros may lie the answer to what triggered the attack…

**“I’ve Known Her Since the Day She Was Born”: A Neighbor’s Portrait of Pamela Cisneros and the Contrast with Times Square**

A longtime neighbor of Pamela Cisneros offered one of the simplest and most striking ᴀssessments in the days after the August 31, 2026, attack in Times Square. “She was an excellent woman. I don’t know what happened with her,” the neighbor said. “I’ve known her since she was born.” The remark, reported alongside family statements, captured the central tension that has defined public discussion of the case: the gap between the person neighbors and relatives described and the figure who appeared in Manhattan that afternoon holding two knives.

Cisneros, 49, lived for the past several years in an apartment on a quiet, tree-lined block in Woodside, Queens. The building manager, Chris Dowling, 46, told reporters that she caused no problems. “Literally she said hello and goodbye, paid the rent on time. Never had a problem with her,” he said. “I never heard a peep out of her.” For those who encountered her in the neighborhood, she registered as a quiet, unremarkable presence. That ordinary residential life stood in sharp contrast to the events that unfolded roughly a short subway ride away in one of the city’s most crowded public spaces.

According to her brother, Patrick Peralta, and the same neighbor, Cisneros had obtained a master’s degree in psychology. A LinkedIn profile ᴀssociated with her name indicated graduation from Touro University in 2021, and family members referenced earlier studies as well. She had worked intermittently, including recent employment as an administrative ᴀssistant for an attorney who handled immigration cases. Relatives said she maintained regular contact with her mother and stepfather, joining them for meals on most afternoons and weekends until the week before the attack.

At the same time, those closest to her described a decades-long struggle with mental health. Peralta has said the difficulties began roughly twenty years earlier with postpartum depression after the birth of her second daughter. He believed the condition later involved bipolar disorder, though he acknowledged he did not know the full diagnosis. Cisneros had been hospitalized multiple times. In 2018 she had a documented mental-health-related encounter with the NYPD. In March 2019 she attempted suicide by jumping onto subway tracks at the Union Turnpike station in Queens. After that crisis she began receiving monthly psychiatric injections that family members said helped her achieve several years of relative stability. During that period, according to Peralta, she showed no aggression or violence toward others.

Cisneros was the mother of three daughters. One, who is autistic and nonverbal, lives in a group home in Brooklyn and was visited by her mother. The other two live in Florida with their father following the end of Cisneros’s marriage. Court records show the divorce process began around 2020. Peralta has said he had to inform the two daughters in Florida of their mother’s death by telephone.

On the Saturday before the attack, Cisneros’s mother spoke with her by phone. According to Peralta, Cisneros said she was fine. Peralta himself had last seen her in early August at a family birthday gathering. In the final week she stopped her usual visits, prompting concern. Family members have speculated that she may have missed recent injections after beginning to administer them herself, though no official determination on her medication status has been released.

The events of August 31 have been established through police statements and video. Around 4:24 p.m., near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, Cisneros pulled two kitchen knives from a Target bag and stabbed a 68-year-old man. Approximately twenty seconds later she fatally stabbed 32-year-old Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America vice president on her first day back from maternity leave. Officers confronted Cisneros near an NYPD substation. After roughly four minutes of commands that she refused, and after Tasers failed to stop her, two officers fired when she advanced while still armed. Cisneros was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at Bellevue Hospital.

The neighbor’s recollection of an “excellent woman” known since birth, the building manager’s description of a quiet tenant, the family’s account of years of stability under treatment, and the educational and employment details all form one side of the public portrait. The other side is the sequence of violence in Times Square, the threats issued to officers, and the fatal shooting that ended the confrontation. Relatives have said they cannot explain the transformation. Peralta has described it as sudden, “like a switch.” Cisneros’s mother has questioned why officers did not physically restrain her daughter. Her father has said the actions do not fit the daughter he knew.

Erin Piacenti’s family has released its own statement remembering a 32-year-old wife, new mother, and professional whose life was defined by devotion and the joy of motherhood rather than by the manner of her death. A GoFundMe was established to support her infant daughter, Madison. The two families now carry separate burdens of grief arising from the same afternoon.

Investigations by the NYPD Force Investigation Division and the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation remain open. Body-worn camera footage is expected to provide additional detail on the final confrontation. A Taser expert has discussed possible reasons the less-lethal devices failed, including body composition, a probe that struck a handbag, distance, and movement. Those technical factors form part of the record but do not resolve the larger question that neighbors, relatives, and the public continue to ask: what changed between the quiet life in Woodside and the violence in Times Square.

The neighbor who had known Cisneros since the day she was born offered no theory, only the plain statement that she had been an excellent woman and that he did not know what happened. That simple observation, set against the documented history of mental health treatment, the recent periods of apparent stability, the ordinary routines of neighborhood life, and the sudden events of August 31, remains one of the most concise expressions of the unresolved contrast at the center of the case. The formal investigations continue. The gap between the two versions of Pamela Cisneros—the neighbor’s long acquaintance and the figure captured on video in Times Square—has not been closed.