Republican candidate for New York State attorney general Saritha Komatireddy announced September 2, that, if elected, she will create an Office of Civil Commitment within the Office of the Attorney General, on her first day in office.
Standing at Times Square with her campaign banner, Komatireddy said New York is suffering an epidemic of attacks stemming from mentally-ill homeless individuals.
The office she plans to establish will be staffed with both law enforcement professionals and physicians — doctors required under state law to certify a person’s mental state for involuntary commitment. Its sole mission: get severely mentally ill, dangerous individuals off the streets and into treatment before they hurt themselves or someone else.
Her pledge comes on the heels of a violent incident on Monday, August 31, afternoon, when a Queens woman with a documented history of mental illness known to the NYPD pulled two knives from a shopping bag and stabbed two strangers in twenty seconds. Erin Piacenti, 32, a bank executive from Chester, New Jersey, died at the hospital. A 68-year-old man who had just stepped off the subway with his wife was stabbed in the side. Police shot and killed the attacker after she refused for four minutes to drop the knives and threatened to kill the officers in front of her.
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“Nothing about Monday was a surprise,” Ms. Komatireddy said. “It was the latest in a series of attacks that could have been prevented if we had an Attorney General focused on safety and willing to enforce the laws we already have on the books.”
Among the incidents cited in her press release are:
- May 2026. Ross Falzone, 76, a retired schoolteacher, shoved to his death down a Chelsea subway staircase by Rhamell Burke — still wearing the wristband from the Bellevue psychiatric unit that discharged him one hour after admission.
- March 2026. Richard Williams, 83, an Air Force veteran, shoved onto the tracks at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street by a man living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter. He died of his injuries.
- December 2025. NYU student Amelia Lewis, attacked from behind on Broadway by a homeless parolee with sixteen prior arrests and a documented history of mental illness.
- December 2024. Debrina Kawam, 57, burned alive on an F train by a man living in a Brooklyn shelter.
“Every one of these attackers was known — to police, to hospitals, to the courts,” Komatireddy said. “New York has the legal authority to commit people who are a danger to themselves and others or who are unable to provide for their own basic needs. What it does not have is leadership in the state AG’s office, whose job it is to use that authority. Don’t expect Letitia James to do it; she’s held the office for eight years and never lifted a finger.”
Komatireddy said she “…will put cops and doctors in the same office, with one job: find the people everyone knows are dangerous, certify them, and bring them in for treatment. Not after the next Erin Piacenti. Before,” she emphasized, adding, “If New York isn’t safe, nothing else matters.”