Ex-NYPD Officer Charged in Stabbing Death of Brooklyn Jogger Katie Suarez
Sayed Mohassib, 27, a school paraprofessional, allegedly stabbed Katie Suarez twice in the neck on Oct. 30. He told detectives he went to the park because people would "kill his family."
Former Officer Told Police He Feared for Family Before Fatal Stabbing
A former NYPD officer accused of fatally stabbing a Brooklyn jogger claimed he was carrying a knife near the Belt Parkway because "people were going to come and kill his family," according to a criminal complaint reviewed by NY Post Metro.
Sayed Mohassib, 27, was arrested in connection with the Oct. 30 death of Katie Suarez, 28, who was attacked while jogging along the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and stabbed twice in the neck. She was left at the scene and died from her wounds.
Mohassib was identified partly through surveillance footage that showed him walking toward the crime scene and later running from it. The timeline aligned with the attack, according to the Brooklyn criminal complaint. Investigators used facial-recognition technology alongside records already held in several government databases — including fingerprints and photographs from his roughly six-week tenure at the NYPD and his subsequent work with the city Department of Education — to confirm his identity, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
After his arrest, Mohassib told detectives he believed he needed to go to the park that day or "people" would harm his family, court documents state. He claimed he then went to the nearby Verrazzano Bridge before returning and sitting on a bench, where he "became covered in blood, including on his jacket, pants and clothes," according to the complaint. He denied stabbing anyone.
Mohassib subsequently ran back to his Bensonhurst home, emerging roughly 15 minutes later wearing only underwear and throwing items down a garbage chute. He told officers he had disposed of both the bloody clothing and the knife, court documents show. Law-enforcement sources said detectives are searching a sanitation barge for the murder weapon.
He also acknowledged having blood on his hands and in his apartment, which he had attempted to clean, according to the complaint. Inside his room, walls were found splattered with blood. Mohassib further identified himself in the surveillance footage, the documents state.
The suspect left the NYPD after just six weeks and sought to join the U.S. Marine Corps, but was rejected over concerns about his mental state, sources said. He later tried to rejoin the NYPD but was turned away after appearing "disheveled" and showing other troubling signs, sources told The Post. At the time of the alleged killing, Mohassib was employed as a paraprofessional in the city's public school system.
The city Board of Education did not respond to a request for comment. A woman at Mohassib's home declined to speak with reporters, saying through the door: "I am in very deep pain right now. I don't want to talk."
Mohassib was arraigned Saturday and ordered held without bail.
Source: NY Post Metro