A 23-year-old man was slashed in the face and abdomen near Seventh Avenue and West 50th Street in Times Square minutes before 10:30 Saturday night, police said. The victim was recovering at NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center and is expected to survive.
NYPD officers patrol in the Times Square area after the slashing of a third person in less than a week (Image: NBC New York via Kyle Mazza).
Police said the a man took off from the scene wearing a beige sweater. It was unclear whether the stabbing was over a dispute or a random act of violence.
The slashing was the third knife attack in Times Square in under a week.
“I just keep my eyes out and kind of avoid eye contact with people (if) I don’t really know what their vibe is,” one woman told NBC New York.
(Image: NBC New York)
Word of the latest violence was nerve-wracking for some people in the area.
“I definitely feel a little unsafe,” another tourist visiting the Times Square area said, as her friend agreed, with that visitor adding, “I feel like I should be wary of my surroundings.”
Saturday’s slashing followed a deadly stabbing in Times Square last week, where police said an emotionally disturbed person identified as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens stabbed a 68-year-old Rhode Island man.
Police said Cisneros also fatally stabbed 32-year-old Bank of America vice president Erin Piacenti of Chester, New Jersey in the abdomen as Piacenti was headed home from work.
Erin Piacenti had just returned to work after maternity leave, when she was stabbed to death in Times Square Aug. 31 (Photo obtained by NBC New York)
According to a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign set up by family, it was Piacenti’s first day back from maternity leave, and the fundraiser was created to support her five-month-old baby girl.
Police said Cisneros later got into a standoff with officers during an encounter between 41st and 42nd streets where she wielded two knives.
“The officers engaged the woman in dialogue for four minutes and gave her numerous commands to drop the knives which she refused,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Video showed officers deploying tasers on Cisneros before she charged at them. Officers then fired their service weapons, killing the 49-year-old.
The knives police say were used in the deadly stabbings in Times Square Monday that left a woman dead and a woman wounded (Image: NBC New York)
In the latest slashing, police continued searching for the suspect.
“There’s so many people living here I think sometimes mental health priority falls under, so I think we need start prioritizing mental health a lot more than we do right now,” a Times Square visitor said.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC New York. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC New York journalist edited the article for publication.