The family of a Bank of America executive fatally stabbed near Times Square broke their silence Wednesday with a statement describing their devastation.
Relatives of Erin Piacenti, 32, said they were “devastated” by her unprovoked stabbing death Monday, which came on her first day back at work after maternity leave. The family asked for privacy as they grappled with the loss, according to the statement they released.
“Becoming a mother was Erin’s lifelong ambition, and Madison gave her the greatest possible joy,” the family wrote on a GoFundMe page they established for Piacenti’s 5-month-old daughter. The fundraiser directed wellwishers there to contribute toward the infant’s future.
Piacenti and her husband, Frank Piacenti, had celebrated their second wedding anniversary this summer, according to the GoFundMe page. The couple, who met while attending Fordham University School of Law together, had just returned from a family road trip when her life was cut short.
“Erin and Frank celebrated their second wedding anniversary this summer, had just returned from a family road trip upon her passing, and were preparing to build a life together with their new daughter,” the fundraiser states.
“That life changed incomprehensibly in an instant.”
Piacenti, a graduate of both the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham Law, had built a career that took her to Bank of America. Her husband had similarly risen through corporate and legal ranks alongside her after their law school days. The pair married in August 2024, according to the family’s account.
The attack that killed Piacenti also seriously wounded a Rhode Island man before the assailant was confronted by police. Pamela Cisneros, 49, a Queens mother of three who had long battled mental illness, was shot and killed by NYPD officers as she tried to charge at them clutching a knife in each hand.
The fundraising campaign for young Madison had drawn more than $103,000 in donations as of Wednesday afternoon, approaching half of its $250,000 goal. The family has turned to those contributions to help secure a future that Piacenti herself had only begun to build with her husband and daughter.
