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Times Square Knife Attack-Lessons
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
September 17, 2026, Israel
Pamela Cisneros, a 49-year-old woman who had a history of mental health issues, stabbed two people in Times Square. She killed Erin Piacenti, who was a vice president of Bank of America, and critically injured a 68-year-old man
The Knives used in the attack, these ended a life and caused massive harm to others.
New York City, good times, bad times, largely depends upon whom the mayor is. It has its ups and downs. Currently it is on a Big Down and will probably get worse. The current mayor is, needless to say, not fit for the job, to put it mildly. Violence is on the increase.
Recently a woman ran around time square stabbing people, eventually the police took care of the situation and restored the calm, but we need to learn from this real life case as much as we can.
Let us first present an overview from the official reports.
Pamela Cisneros, a 49-year-old woman who had a history of mental health issues, stabbed two people in Times Square. She killed Erin Piacenti, who was a vice president of Bank of America, and critically injured a 68-year-old man.
What seemed like a peaceful Monday journey at the heart of New York suddenly transformed into an absolute nightmare when Pamela Cisneros, a 49-year-old woman originally from the Queens neighborhood, pulled two knives out of her bag and began shouting death threats in front of dozens of stunned witnesses across Times Square and its surroundings. While the crowd attempted seeking shelter amidst rush-hour confusion, Cisneros lashed out against a 68-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman during a lightning assault lasting mere seconds inside Times Square and the grand city. Furthermore, the swift intervention of bystanders and security forces tried halting Cisneros while she advanced along the crowded avenue, evidencing the imminent danger experienced by tourists.
The fatal outcome and local authorities’ response
Facing Pamela Cisneros refusing to drop the bladed weapons and her direct threat targeting police officers deployed across Times Square, officials initially resorted to taser guns without achieving expected results to neutralize the situation. Because Cisneros kept advancing aggressively putting present lives at risk inside Times Square, officers opened fire legitimately to stop the carnage before claiming more innocent victims across New York. Therefore, authorities rushed the attacker toward a nearby hospital facility, where medical staff later confirmed her death following the severe wounds sustained during the confrontation with police inside Times Square. (Latin Nation, September 1, 2026)
One man survived, he was lucky, another, a young woman just returning to work after maternity leave, having given birth to her first child, was killed, leaving an orphan and a husband behind.
Let us analyze this and see what we can learn:
With IKI Krav Maga we do not begin with techniques, or forms, or drills, or one-steps, and then try and apply these to real situations. We take the opposite route; we begin with real street violence, or home violence, and we study the attacks, carefully, we analyze them and then we develop tactics to deal with these situations. Eventually we see patterns, these become our drills, these become our techniques. We take it from there.
On our IKI Krav Maga Online program we have dealt with this situation and once again I want to use the words I sent out to our members, accompanied of course by videos, to discuss this situation, as there is a lot more than meets the eye. Here, for our readers, I am sorry but there are no videos attached, for that you will have to join our online program.
This is of course a real case that happened recently in Times Square, in the heart of New York City. This woman was not well mentally and had already stabbed several people earlier including one man who was badly hurt and a young woman, Erin Piacenti, a new mother just returning from maternity leave after giving birth to her first child. She was killed. Thus, the standoff here with the police followed these events and drew a large group of observers.
Many people observed the standoff and thus we have the full picture of this event. Video shared across social media captured the frightening encounter as officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the weapons and get on the ground. She was armed and dangerous and a group of New York City police officers tried to stop her. The encounter lasted over 4 minutes. She was warned, told to drop her weapons, but she did not. They tased her but it had no effect on her, perhaps because of weight and her "padding". They say the Tasing was not able to reach her muscle as it was covered by layers of fat. Some feel one of the probes of the Taser may have hit her purse, interrupting the electrical effect. She was not stopped and she began to charge forward with her knives against the NYC cops, she was shot and later died of her wounds. Her mother protested that they should have simply disarmed her, perhaps with some jujitsu or Krav Maga knife disarms. Hmm
In any event, she was mentally unstable, armed and dangerous, and had already proven her intent and ability to kill. Given no other choice, the police fired and killed her.
Our questions begin with;
1. Was there another way? Had the police officers been martial arts experts, Kung Fu masters, would they have been able to disarm her peacefully without the use of deadly force? Was her death avoidable?
2. Had she attacked, what defense would we as Krav Maga practitioners use to defend ourselves?
3. Assuming we were able to defend ourselves, what would the follow up be? Would we be able to disarm her?
4. Was there a way to come from behind, distracting her from the front, and take her down safely?
We shall attempt to answer these questions.
These questions are not only pertinent to this particular situation but to the entire Outlook and Philosophy of Krav Maga. This is the litmus test! There are many Krav Maga associations who pride themselves as being "Tough Guys" (and Tough Guy women) who would advocate charging forward as "Krav Maga must be aggressive!" This is where we differ from them and I personally have taken "heat" about this, being accused of "waiting to be attacked" rather than going forward in a more "Manly manner".
Smell the New York Coffee
I have proven the falsehood of this approach many times, at many seminars and on many educational videos, but here, as I said, is the litmus test. Here we have an Untrained woman, mentally unstable, clearly out of shape, facing a group of New Yorks' finest, trained street cops, young and fit, and they determined that they could not approach her out of fear of their very lives! That alone should teach us something, That alone should cause all these "Bad Ass" fake instructors to wake up and smell the New York City coffee! I have been there, I have lived there, I went to school there. I have seen the prostitutes and drug dealers and encountered them myself. I know what I am talking about. These are streetwise, tough New York City cops who grew up on these streets. They acted correctly. It is the so called "Combative" instructors covered with body building gym muscles who are mistaken. And I would like to see them charge forward against this 49-year-old overweight, out of shape, woman, I would like to see how many of them would survive. Life is not a YouTube video my friends. I have walked these streets with the Guardian Angels, heroes of New York, and no one would advocate charging forward against an armed person, let alone with two knives.
And here dear friends is where IKI differs, we take the less popular path, but the truer path. You can test this situation yourself and see if you can charge forward and disarm a woman like this.
Not your Preferred Training Partner
On the surface, it looks easy. A slow-moving middle-aged overweight, out of shape woman; piece of cake, Easy Peasy. Most Krav Maga or Combative students would not want to train with such a person in the gym, C'mon coach, give me a serious training partner, not this loser!
You would not Dare
And yet we know that real time, real case, real life, not one of those young fit NYC cops dared approach her, because they know what they are talking about. I have met, trained and talked with many such officers over the years. Many are highly trained martial artists, they are not your stereotypical "Donut eating city cops", these guys are tough. But not stupid!
We worked on this and will share our videos. Spoiler Alert - We were not able to get very close before getting cut badly. As Baruch said it was like walking into a fan, rotating blades.
In the photos we see the knives, they are sharp and deadly, not items to be taken lightly. In the other photo we see the woman holding the knives up in the air and threatening the police officers. When looking at the photos of the police officers we see that they are young and fit, This is NOT a factor. Stop believing the lies spread by some associations. These men are smart enough to know that all of them against one middle-age overweight out of shape woman is not going to end well for them. As Richard Ryan said years ago, "A man with a blade is your physical superior", he did not mention the rank or size of the individual, and when we say man we include woman, as in mankind (sorry to the Woke generation but this is the English language I grew up with, Man is an inclusive term, mankind).
In this video I am demonstrating that no matter what he does, and no matter how I swing the knives, if he walks into the Propeller, the moving blades, he will be sliced up, that is why we don't put our hand into a moving fan. I learned this lesson early on in my life.
It was the 1960's and I was a kindergarten student at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Boston, for some reason I had to go to the "office" (no, I was not in trouble, but I cannot recall the reason, it was a long time ago). There was another boy there, for reasons unknown to me he had try to stop the blades in a moving fan that did not have the protective net/shield around it. Let's just say that that image has never left me and ever since then I have had a bit of a phobia of fans, I know what they can do!
But God always has a plan. He must have known back then when I was a small child that someday I would be teaching Krav Maga all over the world and that I would need to share this message with the world, you do not charge in against an individual with a knife, it can move like the blades of a fan, a propeller and cut up in all directions. May you never witness this gruesome sight, I have.
In Summary - I am going very causally in this video, I have no desire to hurt my friends, colleagues, students, but you can see that without any effort Baruch is getting in all sorts of vital areas. Vital means Life. These cuts can end life.
In another video I am instructing Baruch to swing the knives the way the late Pamela Cisneros did, again, these are two blades in motion. I am trying the Classic Krav Maga approach as is taught all over Europe and the USA and presented at international seminars, I hope you are intelligent enough to see the results. May the fool beware.
Again, these are New York City cops, they have lived and walked these streets for years, I have met many. No one would dare attempt such a foolish approach.
Moshe Katz, 8th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt Hall of fame, USA and Europe. Published Author. International seminar presenter self-defense for all.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?
What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?
All that and more in this unique book.
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