A teacher’s aide who briefly worked as a New York City police officer has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a jogger, according to court documents.
Sayed Mohassib was arrested Saturday, more than a week after Katie Suarez was stabbed in the neck while jogging in Brooklyn.
He was working for the New York City Department of Education, the department confirmed Sunday. The department has suspended Mohassib and will move to terminate his employment pending the outcome of the case, it said in a statement to CNN.
“The safety of our students is our very top priority,” the statement read. “We are supporting the NYPD in their investigation however is needed.”
Now, in the wake of Suarez’ death, details about Mohassib’s past are gaining scrutiny.
Suarez was on a run on the Shore Parkway Greenway, along the waterfront in Brooklyn, on the night of October 30, CNN affiliate WABC reported.
She did not return from her run and did not answer her phone. She was found on a running path “bleeding heavily from the neck” and was taken to a hospital, where she died from her injuries, according to the criminal complaint.
Mohassib is seen on surveillance video walking to the area of the running path before the incident and is later seen in surveillance video running from the area after the stabbing, the complaint alleges.
Video also captures him returning to his home and “emerging fifteen minutes later wearing only underwear and subsequently throwing items into a garbage chute,” the charging document states.
When shown the surveillance video by detectives, Mohassib confirmed it was him, authorities said.
Prosecutors say he said that on the night of the incident, he went to the path with a knife because “people were going to come and kill his family,” according to the charging document.
He told police he sat on a bench and “became covered in blood” but had not stabbed anyone. Prosecutors say he said he ran home, got rid of the bloody clothes and knife, washed the blood off his hands and tried to clean blood in his apartment, according to the document.
Mohassib was arraigned Saturday and has been charged with murder, and two counts each of tampering with evidence and possession of a weapon.
CNN has reached out to Mohassib’s attorney.
Mohassib worked as an NYPD officer for a little more than a month in 2022 before being granted extended military leave. In late November of that year, his firearm was removed and never given back, according to the department.
His last duty assignment in the military was with the Marines on December 15, 2022, in South Carolina, the Marines told CNN on Sunday.
“Mohassib’s premature discharge is indicative that his service was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards,” the Marines said in a statement Sunday.
Mohassib filed for resignation from the NYPD on December 16, 2022, but in January 2023, he requested to be reinstated with the department. His request was denied, the NYPD told CNN.
“Several supervisors observed that he exhibited concerning behavior and appeared disheveled,” the NYPD told CNN. “That same day, he was transported to Bellevue Hospital.”
In a joint statement, New York City Council member Kayla Santosuosso, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and New York State Assembly member-elect Chris McCreight called Mohassib a “mentally disturbed man” “who was discharged from the military on psychiatric grounds.”
“Troublingly though, at the time of the attack, he was a DOE employee, serving as a teacher’s aide in a public school,” the statement read. Mohassib’s background “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.”
Mohassib working for a school is an “atrocity on its own,” state Sen. Stephen Chan told WABC .
CNN’s Karina Tsui contributed to this report.
