Police in New York have arrested a 27-year-old man over the killing of a young woman who was stabbed while out for a run in Brooklyn. Sayed Mohassib was charged on Saturday with second-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Katie Suarez.
Suarez was attacked on the evening of October 30 along the Shore Parkway Greenway, a popular waterfront path in the Bath Beach area of Brooklyn. She died in hospital on November 2, three days after the attack. The arrest came eight days later, after detectives traced the suspect through surveillance video.
How Police Tracked Down Suspect
Surveillance footage showed a man leaving the greenway around the time Suarez was attacked. More video then led detectives to a barbershop and to the area near Mohassib’s home, where cameras caught him dumping rubbish. Officers arrested him at his home in Bath Beach on Saturday.
Police sources say Mohassib told officers he had been walking near the Belt Parkway with a knife, and then blacked out. He said he woke up covered in blood and holding the knife, with no memory of what had happened. He said he threw the knife in the rubbish. Police believe the rubbish was taken to a landfill on Staten Island and then to a dump in New Jersey.
Prosecutors say Suarez’s blood was found splattered on the walls of Mohassib’s apartment, and that he had tried to clean it up. He was taken in for questioning on Friday, a day before his arrest. When officers walked him out of the 62nd Precinct on Saturday afternoon, he wore a red jacket and flip-flops and said nothing to reporters.
School Job Raises Serious Questions
This case has raised hard questions because of where Mohassib worked. He was a teacher’s aide at P.S. 200, an elementary school in Bensonhurst, just three blocks from the waterfront path where Suarez was attacked. He was still working at the school in the days after the attack.
His past jobs tell a troubled story. He joined the New York Police Department in 2022 and spent about six weeks in field training in the Bronx. He then left to join the Marines, who discharged him on psychiatric grounds. He resigned from the police in December 2022, and the force refused to take him back in January 2023 after he was taken to a hospital psychiatric ward. In September 2024, relatives told police he had threatened to chop them up.
The city’s Department of Education has suspended him and said it will move to end his job. “The safety of our students is our very top priority. We have suspended this individual and will move to terminate employment pending the outcome of the conviction. We are supporting the NYPD in their investigation however is needed,” the department said in a statement.
Local elected officials want a full check of how he was hired. In a joint statement, City Councilmember Kayla Santosuosso, State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember-elect Chris McCreight said Mohassib “was evidently a mentally disturbed man with no criminal record” who had been “an ex-NYPD officer and ex-Marine who was discharged from the military on psychiatric grounds.” They added: “Troublingly though, at the time of the attack, he was a DOE employee, serving as a teacher’s aide in a public school.” They said this “raises serious questions about how he came to be employed in a local public school and warrants a full investigation into the circumstances of his hiring and continued employment.”
People who worked with him had already noticed odd behaviour. A 12-year-old pupil at the school said Mohassib had been acting “off” in the days before the arrest, and colleagues said he spoke incoherently and seemed nervous. They reported their concerns to police, though those reports were not what led to his arrest.
Victim Remembered by Family and Neighbours
Katie Suarez was 28 and worked as a teller at a TD Bank branch in Gravesend. She was a keen runner and had been training for a race on November 14. On the night of the attack, she had finished work and gone for a run. Her father found her injured on the path after a phone call with her parents was suddenly cut off.
Earlier in the week, her mother, Yasira Suarez, had called on the person responsible to turn themselves in, saying “you took an angel.” The killing shocked New York, and police searched hard for the attacker while he was still free.
People who use the greenway said the arrest brought relief, but not closure. “Definitely a relief,” said Anatoly Bogdanov. “Everybody was concerned that he is out there and he is dangerous.” Yana Tomacheva said she felt surprised because the area felt safe, adding that the arrest brought “a little bit of relief” and “hopefully, potentially, some closure for her family.”
The Reverend Erick Salgado said: “We want to make sure that he’s held accountable. We hope that justice is done. I know that nothing is going to give them back their daughter, but he will be praying that at least this will come to a closure.” Bogdanov added: “My younger one is still at PS 200 and this is really disturbing.”
Police believe the attack was random, and no motive has been found. Mohassib and Suarez both attended Brooklyn College at the same time, but police have found no sign that they knew each other.
What Happens Next
Mohassib remains in custody. Details of his first court appearance, any plea and bail had not been confirmed by Sunday. The charges are allegations and have not yet been tested in court. He is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the case against him.
The police investigation is still open. Officers have not yet shared everything that links Mohassib to the attack. The school department is cooperating with police, while elected officials press for a review of the hiring checks that allowed a man with this record to work with children.
| Key Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Victim | Katie Suarez, 28 |
| Attack | Evening, 30 October 2026 |
| Place | Shore Parkway Greenway, Brooklyn |
| Death | 2 November 2026, in hospital |
| Suspect | Sayed Mohassib, 27 |
| Arrest | 7 November 2026 |
| Charges | Second-degree murder; tampering with evidence; illegal weapon possession |
| Suspect job | School aide, P.S. 200, Brooklyn |
Sayed Mohassib is a 27-year-old from Bath Beach, Brooklyn. He worked as a teacher’s aide at P.S. 200, an elementary school in Brooklyn. He briefly served with the New York Police Department in 2022 and was later discharged from the Marines on psychiatric grounds.
Katie Suarez, 28, was attacked while jogging on the Shore Parkway Greenway in Brooklyn on the evening of October 30, 2026. She was stabbed in the neck and died in hospital on November 2, three days after the attack.
Mohassib faces charges of second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon. Court details had not been confirmed by Sunday, and he is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the case in court.
