Ex-NYPD officer charged with murder in stabbing death of Brooklyn jogger Katie Suarez
Illustration: Press Pass USAA former New York City police officer who was working as an elementary school aide was arrested Saturday and charged with murder in the stabbing death of a Brooklyn jogger attacked on a waterfront promenade last week.
Sayed Mohassib, 27, was charged with second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon in the killing of Katie Suarez, 28, the New York Police Department confirmed.
Suarez, a TD Bank teller and avid runner, was stabbed in the neck around 8:15 p.m. on Friday, October 30, as she jogged along the Shore Parkway Greenway near Bay 17th Street in Bath Beach, not far from her home in Gravesend, officials said. Her father found her on the path. She was taken to NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn in critical condition and died three days later, on November 2. She had been training for a race scheduled for November 14.
Investigators tracked Mohassib down after surveillance video showed him leaving the greenway around the time Suarez was attacked, police sources told the New York Post. Officers arrested him Saturday at his home in Bensonhurst.
Mohassib served briefly in the NYPD before joining the Marines, from which he was discharged in 2022 after being deemed psychologically unfit, according to the Post. At the time of his arrest he worked as a paraprofessional at P.S. 200 in Bensonhurst, three blocks from where Suarez was attacked, and he returned to work with children days after the killing. The city Department of Education said he has been suspended and that it will pursue his termination.
During questioning at the 62nd Precinct stationhouse, Mohassib told detectives he woke from a blackout covered in blood and holding the murder weapon, police sources told the Post. He said he threw the knife in the garbage; investigators believe the trash was hauled to a Staten Island landfill and then to a dump in New Jersey.
At his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, prosecutors said Suarez's blood was found splashed across the walls of Mohassib's apartment and that he told them he had tried to clean it up, Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman told the court. Judge John McPadden ordered him held without bail. Mohassib pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Edward Mandery, said a psychiatric evaluation was not needed "at this time" and asked that Mohassib be placed in protective custody. His next court date is November 10.
Police believe the attack was random, ABC7 reported. Investigators have not established a motive and have not said whether the two knew each other; both attended Brooklyn College at the same time.
Mohassib is charged, not convicted. He is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the charges in court.
Sources: The New York Post, "Ex-NYPD, ex-Marine, elementary-school educator charged in murder of NYC jogger Katie Suarez" (Nov. 7, 2026); The New York Post, "Ex-cop Sayed Mohassib had NYC jogger Katie Suarez's blood splattered over his apartment walls after alleged murder: prosecutors" (Nov. 7, 2026); The New York Times, as reported by Canadian Running Magazine, "Man arrested in killing of Brooklyn runner" (Nov. 8, 2026); ABC7 New York, as reported (Nov. 7, 2026). Event dates verified: the attack took place Friday, October 30, 2026; Suarez died November 2, 2026; the arrest and charges came Saturday, November 7, 2026.
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