Ex-NYPD officer charged in a Brooklyn jogger’s stabbing reportedly went back to work at an elementary school the Monday after her death
Police spent more than a week searching for the person who stabbed 28-year-old jogger Katie Suarez on a Bath Beach waterfront path. During that time, Sayed Mohassib returned to his teacher aide job at a Brooklyn elementary school, according to the New York Post. The former police officer worked at PS 200 on the Monday after the attack. Mohassib, 27, had a history of behavior that raised concerns before he became a paraprofessional.
He joined the NYPD in 2022 but left after about six weeks to join the US Marine Corps, according to sources. The stabbing took place on Friday, October 30, and Suarez died days later. Mohassib allegedly stabbed her twice in the neck while she was running at a popular Brooklyn promenade. He reportedly told police he brought a knife because he believed someone would harm his family otherwise, though the criminal complaint states he denied stabbing anyone.
Jasmine Cotto has children in the school’s first and second grades. “You don’t know who is teaching our kids. It’s just shocking,” Cotto said. She noted that Mohassib arrived at the school the next day as if nothing had happened. Police arrested him on Saturday after surveillance footage appeared to show him entering and leaving the park area around the time of the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, evidence tampering, and weapon possession charges.
PS 200 parents say their kids saw him every single day
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who launched an NYPD reform package in October, has since ordered a full review of how the school system hired him. The Marine Corps rejected him within a month over concerns about his mental state, the sources said. When he tried to rejoin the NYPD in early 2023, supervisors found him disheveled and took him to Bellevue Hospital, an NYPD spokesperson said. His mother also once told police he killed a family pet, law enforcement sources noted.
Despite these warning signs, Mohassib worked as an hourly support staffer for the city before being hired as a paraprofessional in 2024. That same year, police responded to a report that he had threatened to chop up his family at their Bensonhurst home. However, his mother has reportedly since denied that he ever threatened them.
Sources said facial recognition on photos from his government and public-service work also helped identify him. Department of Education officials confirmed on Monday that Mohassib was fired.
A standard school background check probably would not have flagged him
New York’s SAVE law requires fingerprint-based criminal history checks for prospective school employees, according to state education law. As those checks search criminal records, applicants with no record are cleared automatically. State Sen. Andrew Gounardes and other local officials described Mohassib as “a mentally disturbed man with no criminal record.”
Jennifer Weber, an education policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told Gothamist that DOE applicants face criminal record searches but no psychiatric assessment. However, she said employees are not necessarily reevaluated after they are hired. That may be relevant here, as payroll records reviewed by the outlet show Mohassib joined the DOE in 2019, before his NYPD and Marine Corps stints.
Gounardes wants Mamdani’s review to find ways for the DOE to work with other city agencies holding “orange flags or red flags” about applicants. At the same time, Councilman Frank Morano said he is pursuing legislation to strengthen the department’s hiring.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow The Mary Sue:
