BROOKLYN, New York — The Katie Suarez murder case took a dramatic turn on Saturday, November 7, 2026, when New York police arrested a former NYPD officer and charged him with killing the 28-year-old jogger on a Brooklyn waterfront path. Sayed Mohassib, 27, was taken into custody at his home in Bensonhurst and charged with second-degree murder in the October 30 stabbing of Suarez, a TD Bank teller attacked while jogging near her parents' home in Bath Beach.

Key Points

• NYPD officers arrested Sayed Mohassib, 27, at his Bensonhurst home on Saturday, November 7, 2026, and charged him with second-degree murder.
• Katie Suarez, 28, was stabbed to death around 8:15 p.m. on Friday, October 30, on the Shore Parkway Greenway near Bay 17th Street in Bath Beach.
• Detectives traced Mohassib through surveillance video, public tips and records following a discarded knife from a Staten Island landfill to a New Jersey dump.
• Mohassib told detectives he woke from a blackout covered in blood with the murder weapon and had no memory of the attack.
• He served only six weeks with the NYPD in 2022 before joining the Marines, who discharged him as psychologically unfit. He was working as a school aide three blocks from the attack site.

What Happened

Detectives arrested Mohassib on Saturday morning, eight days after Suarez was attacked on the Shore Parkway Greenway. The 28-year-old was jogging about half a mile to meet her parents when she was stabbed near Bay 17th Street in Bath Beach, near her TD Bank branch in Caesar's Bay. She was found with stab wounds to the neck and died at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where she was declared brain dead. Investigators quickly ruled out robbery and sexual assault, leaving a south Brooklyn neighbourhood shaken by what police described as a random attack.

The break came from surveillance video, public tips and painstaking records work. Detectives tracked Mohassib from video showing him leaving the Greenway around the time of the attack, and traced a discarded knife through a Staten Island landfill to a dump in New Jersey. At the 62nd Precinct, Mohassib told detectives he had woken from a blackout covered in blood with the murder weapon in his hands, with no memory of the attack, and had thrown the knife in the garbage. He was charged with second-degree murder and faces arraignment in Kings County Criminal Court, with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office prosecuting.

Background: A Week of Fear in Bath Beach

The killing stunned Bath Beach, a quiet residential neighbourhood where evening joggers and families use the Shore Parkway Greenway every day. Suarez was a familiar figure there: a 28-year-old bank teller who had emigrated from El Salvador and lived with her parents nearby. On the night she died, she had finished her shift, met her mother, and was on the phone with her father minutes before the attack. Her father found the scene, where investigators later traced a blood trail of about 150 feet.

For a week, the case had no suspect, no description and no motive. The NYPD put up a $10,000 Crime Stoppers reward on Monday, November 2, and appealed for witnesses who had been on the Greenway between 7:56 p.m. and 8:12 p.m. that Friday. K-9 units, scuba teams and drones searched the waterfront and officers handed out flyers. The reward and flyers produced tips that, with the video, pointed detectives toward Mohassib.

Katie Suarez Murder: Who Is Sayed Mohassib?

Mohassib's background is what has shocked the neighbourhood most. He served only six weeks with the NYPD in 2022 before leaving to join the United States Marine Corps. The Marines later discharged him as psychologically unfit, and his later attempts to rejoin the NYPD were denied. At the time of his arrest he was working as a paraprofessional for the New York City Department of Education at PS 200 in Bath Beach, an elementary school three blocks from where Suarez was attacked, and he returned to work with children in the days after the killing. The Department of Education suspended him without pay and began termination proceedings. The only known connection between Mohassib and Suarez, according to investigators, is that both attended Brooklyn College. No motive has been identified.

Reactions

The arrest brought relief to a neighbourhood that had spent a week afraid to use its own waterfront path after dark. The NYPD's Chief of Detectives, Joe Kenny, had described the attack as random in the first days of the investigation, a description that deepened the fear because it suggested any evening jogger could have been the victim. The $10,000 reward, the flyers and the search kept the case in the public eye, and the tip line at 1-800-577-TIPS drew reports that helped detectives close in.

Why It Matters

The arrest matters for reasons that go beyond one case. A former police officer charged with a random street killing strikes at public trust in the people hired to keep neighbourhoods safe, and the fact that Mohassib was working in an elementary school three blocks from the attack site raises hard questions about how someone discharged from the Marines as psychologically unfit and rejected on later attempts to rejoin the NYPD ended up employed around children. The case also shows how video, tips and the tracing of a discarded knife through two states' waste systems identified a suspect within eight days. The $10,000 reward the NYPD offered days after the killing drew the tips that helped bring the case to this point, and another recent New York stabbing case in Queens shows how quickly such attacks shake a neighbourhood when no suspect is in custody.

What Happens Next

Mohassib faces arraignment in Kings County Criminal Court, where prosecutors from the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office will present the second-degree murder charge and a judge will decide on bail and the next court dates. The case will also test Mohassib's account to detectives: his statement that he woke from a blackout with no memory of the attack is likely to become a central issue as the prosecution builds its case from the surveillance video, the knife trail and the forensic evidence. For Bath Beach, the question now is whether the path Suarez used every evening feels safe again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was charged in the Katie Suarez murder?
Sayed Mohassib, 27, a former NYPD officer and PS 200 school aide in Bath Beach, was arrested on November 7, 2026, and charged with second-degree murder.

When and where was Katie Suarez killed?
Suarez, 28, was stabbed around 8:15 p.m. on October 30, 2026, on the Shore Parkway Greenway near Bay 17th Street in Bath Beach, while jogging to meet her parents.

How did police identify the suspect?
Surveillance video, tips from a $10,000 reward, and records tracing a discarded knife from a Staten Island landfill to a New Jersey dump.

What did Mohassib tell detectives?
He said he woke from a blackout covered in blood with the murder weapon, had no memory of the attack, and threw the knife in the garbage.

What happens next?
Mohassib faces arraignment in Kings County Criminal Court. The Department of Education has suspended him without pay and begun firing proceedings.