Erin Piacenti was 32 and had just returned to the office.
She had taken maternity leave, and just four days before her death, she posted a photo smiling alongside her husband, Frank, and their baby, happy about the recent baptism.
She was a vice president at Bank of America, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham Law, where she met her husband.
On Monday, August 31, at around 4:30 in the afternoon, she was walking through Times Square when a woman carrying two knives hidden in a shopping bag attacked her for no reason.
The attacker, identified as Pamela Cisneros, also injured a 68-year-old man who managed to survive.
Police arrived at the scene and opened fire after she refused to drop the weapons and threatened the officers. Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that Cisneros had a documented history of mental illness, although she had never been arrested before.
Bank of America mourned the loss of someone who, according to an executive, was ‘a valued colleague and friend’ and had been with the company for just 18 months.
How many warning signs were ignored before this ended in tragedy?