The public school substitute aide and former NYPD cop accused of killing Brooklyn jogger Katie Suarez made paranoid statements to investigators that “people were going to kill his family,” new court filings reveal.
Sayed Mohassib, 27, charged with murder in the runner’s Oct. 30 stabbing, was seen on video outside his apartment in just his underwear throwing items down a garbage chute shortly after the slaying, according to the criminal complaint against him.
Mohassib is accused of ambushing the 28-year-old victim as she ran east on the Shore Parkway Greenway promenade off of the Belt Parkway near Bay 17th St. in Bath Beach, stabbing her repeatedly in the neck. A Brooklyn Criminal Court judge ordered him held without bail late Saturday.
Police used video surveillance to track down Mohassib, who was caught on camera walking to the scene and then fleeing it, according to the complaint. He was then caught on video returning to his home, less than a mile away, and emerging in his underwear 15 minutes after that, the complaint says.
When police spoke with him, he gave a disjointed statement, telling cops he came down to the bike path with a knife, “or people were going to kill his family,” then headed to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and back, according to the complaint. The bridge is within sight of the crime scene.
He told police he sat down on a bench and somehow “became covered with blood, including on his jacket, pants and clothes,” but claimed he did not stab anyone, according to the complaint.
Mohassib said he ran home, got rid of the bloody clothing and the knife, and when he realized his bloody hands were making a mess in his apartment, he tried to clean up after himself, the complaint says.
Detectives found a reddish stain on his apartment wall, according to the complaint.
Mohassib was charged with murder, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon. He’s due back in court Tuesday.
After killing Suarez, Mohassib returned to work at P.S. 200 in Bath Beach on Monday, where he was assigned to a classroom working with students, according to a police source.
Though Mohassib went to Brooklyn College at the same time Suarez was a student there, and he worked in the same area she did, police do not believe they knew each other, sources said.
Mohassib has a history of emotional problems. Two years ago, according to police sources, his mother and sister called 911 after he threatened to “chop them up.”
In October 2022, Mohassib graduated from the NYPD police academy but soon resigned to join the Marines. He was then discharged from the military for psychological reasons a month later, police sources said.
On Dec. 16, 2022, he tried to reapply to the NYPD, but officials noted during his interview that he looked disheveled and was acting erratically. NYPD officials denied his application and called an ambulance, which took him to Bellevue Hospital for an evaluation, the sources said.
He then became an aide for the Department of Education, officials said. Local elected leaders are now calling for a “full investigation” into how Mohassib was hired to work with kids despite his troubled background.