Brooklyn teacher’s aide Sayed Mohassib stabbed runner to death as she trained for NYC Marathon, threatened to ‘chop up’ family in 2024
A Brooklyn teacher’s aide, Sayed Mohassib, is charged with fatally stabbing runner Katie Suarez while she trained for the NYC Marathon in October 2024, near a Brooklyn school where he worked. Questions have grown about his hiring given past assessments of mental fitness that barred him from the Marines and the NYPD. City leaders ordered a review of safeguards for students after the incident, while authorities pursue the case and determine the perpetrator’s access to school environments. The broader fallout centers on school staffing and the reliability of background checks in safeguarding children and the public. The case underscores the risk that even vetted adults in schools may pose and signals a tightening scrutiny ahead.
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Sayed Mohassib, 27, was arrested and charged with the murder of 28-year-old runner Katie Suarez, who was attacked on October 30 as she trained near Gravesend’s waterfront promenade in Brooklyn.
Surveillance footage showed Mohassib returning to his Bensonhurst apartment drenched in blood, and he told police he had carried a knife because he believed people would come to kill his family, and he later claimed to have blacked out during the incident.
Mohassib had a history of failed placements: he briefly joined the NYPD in October 2022, left shortly after to join the Marines, and was discharged the same year for being psychologically unfit; attempts to rejoin the NYPD were denied due to concerning behavior.
He continued to work as a paraprofessional at PS 200 in Brooklyn in the week after Suarez’s murder, with officials later stating the city’s Department of Education fired him.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered a full review of the case to assess how Mohassib was able to work in a school setting, citing the safety of students as the paramount concern.
Police were called to Mohassib’s Bensonhurst home in 2024 after relatives reported that he had threatened to ‘chop them up,’ indicating prior violent threats before the fatal incident.