Patrick Peralta says he first dismissed the news footage as routine city chaos until photographs revealed the knife-wielding woman was his own sister.
Peralta, 59, spoke out Tuesday about Pamela Cisneros, 49, the day after she was shot dead by NYPD officers near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue following a random double stabbing in Times Square. He told The Post he learned of the incident through news reports and initially brushed it off as “typical New York crap.”
The last time Peralta saw Cisneros was in August, when the siblings gathered for their stepfather’s birthday. She had also been a regular visitor to their mother, though that pattern shifted recently.
“Last week she stopped coming to see my mother,” Peralta said. “We called, she said she was fine on Saturday.”
“There was no sign something was wrong,” he added.
Cisneros’s mental health struggles stretched back decades, according to her brother. She attempted suicide around age 19 and received a diagnosis that Peralta believes was bipolar disorder, though he expressed uncertainty about her full medical history.
“I think bipolar, but I don’t know what else was going on,” he said.
The treatment regimen included monthly injections, Peralta said, and he speculated that a lapse in that medication may have precipitated the violence.
“I think maybe she stopped the injection she was getting and that caused her to act the way she was,” he said.
Despite the long history of mental health challenges, Peralta emphasized that Cisneros had never displayed violent tendencies before Monday’s attack.
“She never showed any aggressiveness or being violent. I don’t know what happened,” he said.
The confrontation with police unfolded around 4:30 p.m. Monday near the bustling intersection of West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, the heart of Times Square. Officers encountered Cisneros still holding two knives following the attacks on a woman and a man.
Video captured officers deploying stun guns without success as Cisneros swung both arms, a blade in each hand. She charged at the officers, prompting them to open fire.
Cisneros died from her wounds at Bellevue Hospital.
The female victim of the stabbing did not survive the attack. The male victim was seriously wounded.
Peralta said his disbelief only dissolved when he saw photographs from the police showdown and recognized his sister.