A young woman was fatally stabbed on a Brooklyn waterfront path, and the man accused of killing her reportedly went back to working with elementary school children within days. Parents deserve safe classrooms, not another reason to wonder how troubling warning signs were handled.
According to The Daily Wire, Sayed Mohassib, a 27-year-old teacher’s aide and former NYPD officer, was arrested Saturday in the October 30 attack on Katie Suarez. He was ordered held without bail on charges of second-degree murder, evidence tampering and weapons possession. Those remain allegations, not a conviction.
Education officials suspended Mohassib and said they would move to fire him, pending the case’s outcome. His elementary school workplace sits just blocks from the promenade where Suarez was attacked.
Coworkers reportedly told police that Mohassib had been babbling and behaving strangely. Those tips did not crack the case, according to sources cited by the New York Post. Two children also said they had seen him muttering to himself and appearing on edge. When even the children notice something is wrong, asking what adults knew is hardly unreasonable.
Suarez, 28, had finished her shift at TD Bank and was running beside the Belt Parkway near Bay 17th Street around 8 p.m. She was stabbed at least twice in the neck.
She had told her parents she was minutes from their meeting place. When she failed to arrive, her father searched for her and found her bleeding on the path. Her family said she was declared brain dead at the hospital and died after being removed from life support. Sources said five people received her organs. She had begun training for the New York City Marathon.
Authorities said surveillance footage helped identify Mohassib. Cameras allegedly placed him near the path and captured him fleeing. According to the criminal complaint, he was recorded taking out bags of trash roughly 15 minutes after arriving home. Investigators searched a sanitation facility Sunday for evidence.
Mohassib allegedly told detectives he blacked out and awoke on a bench covered in blood. He reportedly admitted walking the path with a knife because he believed “people were going to come and kill his family.” He denied stabbing anyone, but allegedly admitted discarding the knife and bloody clothing. Police also found a bloodstain in his apartment that he said he tried to clean.
The reported history raises uncomfortable questions. After about four to six weeks as an NYPD rookie in 2022, Mohassib left for the military, which reportedly discharged him over mental health issues. An attempted police return ended with a trip to Bellevue after he appeared disheveled and erratic. The NYPD rejected his return; he later worked again at the Department of Education.
In September 2024, his mother and sister reportedly told police he threatened to “chop them up.” He was taken to Coney Island Hospital. Bureaucratic reassurance is a poor substitute for examining that history and explaining how he remained in a classroom job.
Police believe Suarez’s killing was random. Although she and Mohassib attended Brooklyn College at the same time, there is no known connection between them.
