Did obesity prevent the Taser from stopping Pamela Cisneros? The final 30 seconds of the psychology master’s student’s life were chaotic, yet one specific detail remains a constant topic of discussion
Did obesity prevent the Taser from stopping Pamela Cisneros? The final 30 seconds of the psychology master’s student’s life were chaotic, yet one specific detail remains a constant topic of discussion.
A Taser expert later identified several reasons why the device might have failed to work effectively—including one probe striking the subject’s handbag and the difficulty of establishing proper contact.
This detail is crucial because the final confrontation took place after Erin Piacenti had already sustained a fatal wound.
Pamela was still clutching a knife in each hand as she advanced toward the officers.
The question now is not merely why the Taser failed to work, but rather what might have happened during those few fleeting seconds had it been effective…
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Did Body Composition and Other Factors Prevent the Taser from Stopping Pamela Cisneros?
On the afternoon of August 31, 2026, in the heart of Times Square, a confrontation between New York Police Department officers and 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros ended with gunfire after multiple Taser deployments failed to incapacitate her. Cisneros, who police said had just stabbed two people in rapid succession—one fatally—advanced toward officers while holding a knife in each hand. The final moments of the encounter have been examined closely by investigators, bystander video, and at least one Taser expert. Among the factors cited as possible reasons the devices did not stop her are body composition, the placement of probes, distance, movement, and the presence of a handbag.
The sequence began earlier that afternoon. According to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Cisneros removed two kitchen knives from a Target bag near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue around 4:24 p.m. and stabbed a 68-year-old man. Approximately twenty seconds later she fatally stabbed 32-year-old Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America vice president. Officers located Cisneros near an NYPD substation in the vicinity of West 43rd Street. They spent roughly four minutes giving repeated verbal commands for her to drop the knives. Cisneros refused, stating that she would rather kill the officers, and continued to hold the weapons. Multiple officers then discharged Tasers. The devices proved ineffective. Cisneros advanced while still armed. Two officers fired their service weapons. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital and pronounced dead.
Bystander video captured portions of the final confrontation. In the footage, Cisneros can be seen holding the knives, moving her arms, and then moving toward the officers after the sound of Taser discharges. Official accounts confirm that Tasers were used before lethal force. The question of why those less-lethal options failed has been addressed in public reporting by Artur Sadowski, a retired NYPD detective and Taser expert who previously wrote training materials used by the department and served as an Axon master instructor.
Sadowski told The New York Post that several factors likely limited the effectiveness of the devices. One was body composition. “The thicker the padding in front of the muscles, the more difficult it is for the taser to get to the muscles and be effective,” he said. Tasers work by delivering an electrical charge intended to cause neuromuscular incapacitation—a temporary disruption of voluntary muscle control—when both probes establish solid contact and complete a circuit through the body. When significant adipose tissue lies between the probes and the underlying muscle, the electrical effect can be reduced. Sadowski noted that probes appeared to strike Cisneros at least once in the midsection of the abdomen, an area where body fat can limit the charge’s ability to reach the muscles needed for full incapacitation. He added that she may have experienced pain or localized muscle cramping but not enough disruption to stop her advance.
A second factor involved the handbag Cisneros was carrying. According to Sadowski, one of the probes struck the purse, which was positioned across her body. Because a completed circuit requires both probes to make contact with the subject, a probe that lodges in clothing, a bag, or another object rather than the body can prevent the electrical current from flowing effectively. Video analysis and expert review later identified Taser probes and wires in the scene, including one associated with the purse. A separate fact-check confirmed that a shiny object visible in some footage after Cisneros fell was a Taser 7 probe rather than a bullet fragment.
Distance and movement also played roles. Sadowski explained that the devices require both probes to land with adequate separation and solid contact. The distance between the officers and Cisneros, combined with her continuous movement—described in reporting as erratic or “jostling”—made consistent, effective probe placement difficult. He estimated that at least three Tasers were discharged in roughly one second, with a possible fourth fired around the time the officers used their firearms. Even when probes strike the body, a narrow spread between them, thick clothing, or body composition can reduce the electrical effect. Preferred target areas for greater effectiveness, he noted, include regions with less subcutaneous fat, such as the back or the backs of the legs.
These technical observations do not alter the broader context of the encounter. By the time officers confronted Cisneros, Erin Piacenti had already sustained a fatal wound and the second victim had been stabbed. Cisneros remained armed with two knives, refused commands, issued threats, and moved toward the officers. Under standard use-of-force principles, an advancing armed subject who has already demonstrated willingness to use deadly force presents an imminent threat. The decision to employ firearms after less-lethal options failed is the subject of ongoing review by the NYPD Force Investigation Division and the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation.
Cisneros’s background has been detailed by family members in the days after the incident. She was a mother of three who had earned a master’s degree in psychology and had recently worked as an administrative assistant in a law office handling immigration matters. Relatives described a long history of mental health challenges that began with postpartum depression and, according to her brother, later involved bipolar disorder. She had documented encounters with police related to mental health in 2018 and 2019, including a suicide attempt in 2019. In recent years she had received monthly psychiatric injections that family members said had helped stabilize her. They reported that she had appeared fine in the days immediately before the attack, including in a phone conversation with her mother on the preceding Saturday.
The failure of the Tasers has become one of the most discussed technical aspects of the case precisely because the confrontation occurred after the stabbings had already taken place. Had the devices produced neuromuscular incapacitation, the officers might have been able to take Cisneros into custody without resorting to gunfire. The expert analysis indicates that a combination of body composition, probe placement (including contact with the handbag), distance, and continuous movement reduced the likelihood of that outcome. These are mechanical and physiological factors that can affect Taser performance in any encounter, independent of the subject’s mental state or prior actions.
Official statements have not released a formal ballistic or medical determination on the precise reasons the Tasers failed. The public discussion rests on the contemporaneous account provided by Commissioner Tisch, the bystander video, and the detailed commentary offered by Sadowski. Body-worn camera footage, which officials have said will be released, is expected to provide additional angles on the timing of the Taser deployments, the positions of the officers, the distance involved, and the exact sequence of movements in the final seconds.
The case illustrates both the intended role of less-lethal tools and their known limitations. Tasers are designed to provide an intermediate option between verbal commands and deadly force. When probes fail to establish an effective circuit—whether because of body composition, intervening objects such as a handbag, insufficient probe spread, clothing, or subject movement—the device may deliver pain without producing the full incapacitation required to stop an advancing threat. In this instance, the subject continued to move forward while armed after the Taser deployments. The officers then used firearms.
Family members of Cisneros have expressed sorrow for the victims and difficulty understanding her actions. They have described a woman who had pursued higher education, held recent employment, and had periods of stability under treatment. The events of August 31, including the ineffective Taser deployments and the subsequent shooting, remain under official investigation. The technical explanations offered by the Taser expert address one specific and frequently discussed element of those final moments: why the less-lethal option did not stop an armed subject who was advancing on officers after already having stabbed two people.
The full body-camera record and any subsequent expert analyses conducted as part of the formal investigations may add further detail. Until those materials are released, the available public information consists of the police timeline, the video evidence, and the assessment that body composition, probe contact with a handbag, distance, and movement were among the factors that limited the Tasers’ effectiveness in the critical seconds before deadly force was used.
