This is the major new development in the case Awaaz Punjab reported on November 4, when Katie Suarez had died, a $10,000 Crime Stoppers reward was on offer and no arrest had been made. That earlier report is here: Read the November 4 report: jogger dies, reward offered, hunt continues
The New York Police Department has arrested a 27-year-old man and charged him with murder in the stabbing of jogger Katie Suarez, 28, on Brooklyn's Shore Parkway Greenway — the random waterfront attack that has gripped southern Brooklyn for more than a week. Sayed Mohassib was arrested on Saturday, November 7, at his home in New Jersey and charged with second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon, the NYPD's Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information confirmed. The charges are allegations: Mohassib has not been convicted and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Source: NYPD DCPI confirmation, reported by Dark History Files / FOX 5 New York — Nov. 7, 2026
How investigators say they found him
Investigators say three threads led to the arrest: park video showing a person leaving the scene around the time of the attack, tips from the public, and records tracing a discarded knife through landfill and dump routes. Police sources told the New York Post that Mohassib was picked up on video leaving the Brooklyn park at about the time Suarez was attacked, and that investigators believe he put the knife in the garbage after the attack — from where it was taken to a Staten Island landfill before landing at a New Jersey dump.
Source: Particle — investigators' account, Nov. 7, 2026
According to those police sources, Mohassib told officers he has no recollection of the attack, but said he woke up from a blackout covered in blood with the suspected murder weapon in his possession. Particle's summary of the authorities' account likewise reports that he told detectives he did not remember the attack but recalled being covered in blood and said he discarded the knife. Those statements are the investigators' account of what he allegedly said; they have not been tested in court, and Awaaz Punjab reports them as allegations attributed to police sources.
Source: New York Post police sources, via Particle and Internews — Nov. 7, 2026
The accused: ex-NYPD, ex-Marine, school aide
Police said Mohassib briefly worked for the NYPD in 2022 before resigning to join the Marines. He was later discharged, attempted to return to the NYPD, but was referred to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and did not rejoin the department, ABC7 New York reported, in an account carried in summaries of Saturday's arrest. Most recently he was employed as a teacher's aide at PS 200 in Bensonhurst, according to sources cited by the Post. Mohassib and Suarez both attended Brooklyn College, but police have not confirmed whether they knew one another, and no motive has been determined. Authorities say Suarez was not robbed and was not sexually assaulted.
Source: ABC7 New York / New York Post reporting, via Internews — Nov. 7, 2026
The attack this arrest answers
Suarez was jogging eastbound on the Shore Parkway Greenway near Bay 17th Street in Bath Beach at about 8 p.m. on Friday, October 30, when she was stabbed in the neck. Despite her wounds she ran about 150 feet before collapsing beneath a tree; her father, who had gone out looking for her when she did not return home, found her at about 8:16 p.m. and called 911. She was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in critical condition, was declared brain dead, and died on Monday night, November 2, her family told reporters. She worked as a bank teller nearby, lived less than a mile from the path, and was a dedicated runner training through New York City Marathon weekend; neighbours remembered her to reporters as 'very professional, very kind' and 'very soft-spoken.'
Source: Internews — background reporting, Nov. 7, 2026; Awaaz Punjab Nov. 4 report
The stretch of greenway where Suarez was attacked has no fixed surveillance cameras and, runners noted, no streetlights. Detectives first built the case around vehicles — a licence-plate reader logged roughly 1,700 cars on the Belt Parkway corridor — and a $10,000 Crime Stoppers reward. Saturday's arrest, on the investigators' account, came instead from park video, public tips and the trail of a discarded knife. Whether permanent lighting, cameras and patrols now follow on the greenway is the safety question Bath Beach and Bensonhurst residents have been asking since October 30.
What is solid, and what is not
What is solid
- The NYPD has arrested Sayed Mohassib, 27, and charged him with second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon in the October 30 stabbing of Katie Suarez, 28 — NYPD DCPI confirmed the arrest and charges on November 7.
- Suarez was stabbed in the neck on the Shore Parkway Greenway near Bay 17th Street at about 8 p.m. on October 30 and died on November 2; police have said the attack appears random and that she was not robbed.
- Mohassib briefly served with the NYPD and the Marines and most recently worked as a Department of Education teacher's aide at PS 200 in Bensonhurst, according to police and sources cited by ABC7 and the New York Post.
What is only claimed
- What Mohassib allegedly told detectives — no memory of the attack, waking covered in blood, discarding the knife — is the investigators' account via police sources; it has not been tested in court and he is presumed innocent.
- Whether Mohassib and Suarez knew each other at Brooklyn College, and any motive, have not been established; police have not confirmed a prior connection.
What happens next
Mohassib, arrested in New Jersey, now enters the New York court process on the murder charge, beginning with arraignment; police have said more information is expected. Prosecutors will have to prove the video, tip and knife-trail evidence in court, and the defence will be able to challenge the statements attributed to him. For the runners, walkers and cyclists who use the Shore Parkway Greenway — including the large New York–New Jersey Punjabi community that trains on waterfront paths like this one and turns out for marathon weekend — the arrest closes the manhunt, but not the argument about lighting, cameras and patrols on a dark stretch of path. Awaaz Punjab will report the arraignment and any motive police establish.