Nov. 9, 2026
UPDATE: Teacher’s Aide And Ex-Cop Arrested For Brutally Murdering Brooklyn Jogger
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RSS Feed Police have arrested a New York City teacher's aide for the stabbing death of 28-year-old Katie Suarez. Officials have charged 27-year-old Sayed Mohassib with second degree murder, after they say he stabbed Suarez in the neck while she was running along the popular Brooklyn waterfront. Shockingly, Mohassib currently works as a teacher’s aide at a nearby elementary school and briefly worked for the NYPD before being removed for psychological reasons. He was also discharged from the Marines for mental health issues, raising major questions as to how he was hired by the New York City Department of Education.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, November 9th, and a week-long manhunt is over. Police caught the man that they say attacked a jogger, randomly killing her. The manhunt is over. I guess they were looking in the wrong spot. Where they needed to be looking for this guy? A New York City classroom. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. It was hard to imagine, given the initial crime, how this story could get This is some really terrifying stuff.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: It's very terrifying because the man, yes, who has been arrested for stabbing a 28-year-old woman in the neck multiple times while she was jogging, yes, was a current teacher's aide in a New York City elementary school in And before that, he was a police officer and also had a stint in the Marines. This is a dude who was rejected from two major establishments.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: Here it is.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: Set up to protect citizens.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Here it is.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: And after he was rejected for mental health concerns, was allowed to be. Be a part of the educational process of young, impressionable children.
00:01:21
Speaker 1: This is why now this story is a much bigger story, a more appalling story. Yes, someone that the NYPD and the Marines deemed psychologically unfit to be a part of the force and of the military. Some kind of way, babe. We'll take you and come teach our kids. Rose, somebody is going to have to answer this one. I don't know. Do you not look at to this type of background? Is there no way before hiring someone to put them in the classroom? you could get your hands on a personnel file should you know that someone was rejected by two different entities for psychological reasons?
00:02:02
Speaker 2: And the answer, obviously, is yes.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Can you do it?
00:02:06
Speaker 2: A resounding yes.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: Legally, can you? I don't know the rules on this stuff.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Well, look, wasn't he discharged from the military? He was. From the Marines?
00:02:13
Speaker 1: He was.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: And yes, mental health issues absolutely need to be taken into consideration if they are the reason behind someone's either rejection or firing. That has to be known before you are then put in a place of trust within a community with your most precious resource, your children. There's no one or nothing more valuable in any person's life than the safety of their child, period, end of story.
00:02:43
Speaker 1: Maybe they will give us answers to why, and they're going to have to give us an answer as to why their hands were tied and weren't able to get his back. They are looking for a way to explain that to us all, because they're going to have to rope. What we're potentially talking about, a guy who was capable of stabbing a random woman in the neck twice as she was out for a run, is in the classroom with children.
00:03:06
Speaker 2: That is so unbelievably frightening. Look, we've talked about this. I think anyone can imagine, no matter where you live in this country or in the world, if there was a knife-wielding monster on the loose that had attacked... an unsuspecting, innocent young woman just out for a run a half a mile away from home, we were concerned. We were having conversations with our daughter, specifically my older one, who is a runner in Brooklyn. So yes, this was concerning, but also with your 13-year-old who was walking to and from school just knowing this person was on the run, never suspecting in any of our wildest imaginations that this person was hiding in plain sight in a New York City classroom.
00:03:49
Speaker 1: What the... You said it about Sabine. We're warning her about her surroundings everywhere. And I tell her to let me know when she gets to school so I know she's safe. You're telling me the warning I should have been giving Sabine. Watch out for some of those weird teachers. Anybody acting strange? No, of course I shouldn't be thinking about that. I can't wait to hear how they answer this one. Because Robes, it got through the cracks, certainly. Are they really going to come out and say... Law prevents us. It was his medical background. Are they going to come out and say that?
00:04:25
Speaker 2: If that is the case, and we have to wait and see if that is possibly something they could even use as a defense. If that's the case, then laws need to be changed because this is so unacceptable to think that people who have diagnosed and documented mental health issues that have risen to a level that you are unfit to be a police officer and unfit to be a Marine, 100% that should immediately disqualify you from working in any way, shape, or form with children.
00:05:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if much else. I don't know. Maybe we're missing something. Well, more details will come out. But we did get this over the weekend that Syed Mohassib is the name. He worked as a teacher's aide. They know the school, a particular one, public school in Brooklyn. Now, before that, 2022, he applied, worked for the NYPD, but he only went full time there for a month. He went through the training academy. But after a month, He asked for leave because he wanted to go to the Marines. He went and joined the Marines, was gone from the Marines in a month's time because he couldn't pass a psychological test with them. Their statement about him comes and says, Mohasib's premature discharge is indicative that his service was incongruent with Marine Corps expectations today. and standards. That's the statement they put out. So Robes, he gets discharged from the Marines, tries to go back to the NYPD. They recommend he goes to Bellevue for a mental evaluation, and he's never accepted back on the force. That's the guy who somehow, someway, ended up in classrooms.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yes, and add to that disturbing resume that I'm sure he was not forthcoming about when he applied to become a worker of the Department of Education. But in 2024, just two years ago, his own mother and his sister called 911 because they told police that he threatened to, quote, chop them up. How was none of this found, determined? Are there no background checks to workers of the Department of Education?
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Does that show up? Does that kind of stuff, a 911 call, a report, a psych evaluation, I don't know, babe, what they are.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: It didn't take long for reporters to find this all out.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: Don't we have these stories pop up every once in a while? And I do think, babe, it's educators, I think it's police officers, and I think it's nurses that for some reason their employment history or their disciplinary history doesn't follow them as they go to new places. And you have a lot of people who keep slipping through the cracks because their background from another place, the new place, they never find out what happened there. We've seen these stories.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Yes, we've seen this. We've seen this actually, but usually I would argue the stories I've done and you and I have both done over the years, priests, medical professionals, teachers, police officers, this usually ends up happening when you change states. Like there is something about crossing state lines and going to another state that somehow you can evade whatever history you've left behind in another state or at least there's an incentive for them to typically fire you without prejudice or not leave a stain on your record. if you agree to leave and leave the state. So we're just pushing one state's problem onto another one. Yes, we've recovered that. I've never seen this happen where it's actually all within New York, the NYPD. I don't know where he joined the Marines, but I'm assuming it's here locally. And then, I don't know, this is just, if there is some sort of vacuum in which this can occur, it needs to be changed immediately.
00:08:18
Speaker 1: But is it because they're not, right? Those are three different areas. Education, military, police. Are the police looking at the background of a guy based on his police background? Is the military looking at something different? Does the Department of Education have any reason to go look and try to find out if somebody used to work for the NYPD? Don't they just want to see his employment background as it relates to education?
00:08:42
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:08:43
Speaker 1: Did he put NYPD or the Marines on his resume?
00:08:45
Speaker 2: He would have to, though, because there would be big gaps in his resume. resume, unless he just said, I was staying at home helping, like, what would you even say? And how would that be a good thing to be that young and have big gaps on your work resume?
00:08:59
Speaker 1: So even as we, you can tell, Robes, you and I are even, as we're talking about it, going, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell? So they're trying to figure this out, how exactly this happened. The Department of Education, they put this statement out, short and to the point, I guess, but a little head scratching it in parts. saying that the safety of our students is our very top priority. We have suspended this individual and will move to terminate employment pending the outcome of the arrest. Okay. I mean, I guess everybody has a right to the trial, fair trial.
00:09:33
Speaker 2: I guess there are strict rules. We've done stories on this as well in terms of what it takes to fire a teacher or anyone working with the Department of Education. It actually is the teacher's union. It's very powerful. And so they have some pretty stringent rules in place before you can officially fire someone. So, yes, that is a carefully worded statement by the Department of Education here in New York.
00:09:55
Speaker 1: We did get more details. Robes, they told us when this happened, October 30th. It was a Friday night, right, when she was killed. And immediately police said the area where she was running did not have cameras. So they couldn't see the actual attack or see a suspect. But we were getting more details after this individual has been arrested. Robes, they were able to piece things together from... videos in other places. This was interesting how they put it together.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: They were. The cameras ended up pointing them in the right direction. They say video surveillance depicted the defendant walking into the area of the running path before the incident and then running away. After the incident. So that was pretty clear. And then they say it also depicted the defendant returning to his residence. This is amazing they could see this. And emerging 15 minutes later wearing only underwear and subsequently throwing items into a garbage chute. And then the defendant had his own statements. He's admitted to violence at least or maybe at least having a knife. He said he came down the bike path with a knife because people were going to come and kill his family. That is what he said he believed. And then he said he just sat down on a bridge and, quote, became covered in blood. But he said he didn't stab anyone. Clearly, this is someone making those types of statements who isn't mentally making any sense.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: It's not quite right. So, okay, let's say that is the case. How is this person Working in an elementary school. Now, we should say, the best I can put together, they describe it as a teacher's aide, a substitute teacher's aide at this school. How often that person is in that school, don't know. But the authorities have said between the murder and his arrest.
00:11:46
Speaker 2: He went to work. Yeah. Let that sink in.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: That sink in.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: Frightening.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: So stay here. We'll tell you what local officials are now saying. And they are pissed and want to find out how this guy ended up in a New York City classroom.
00:12:15
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Look, the good news is there has been arrest in that murder of a Brooklyn jogger, 28-year-old Katie Suarez out for a run, stabbed twice in the neck. The bad news is who police have arrested. A teacher's aide who was working at PS200 in Brooklyn in a classroom full of children, despite the fact that he was rejected from the Marines and the police, the NYPD, because of mental health issues. So yes, there is A lot of finger pointing and there are a lot of questions and a tremendous amount of criticism. First, we'll give some of the voices that are chiming in. State Senator Stephen Chan said, that is an atrocity on its own. I can't believe that our children and our other teachers and staff members were actually in danger all this time.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: That's one way to put it. How do they feel today? Oh my goodness, the parents. Can you imagine if you're the parent of one of those kids?
00:13:18
Speaker 2: No.
00:13:19
Speaker 1: Or the teacher.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Oh, man. Oh, man.
00:13:24
Speaker 1: Rose, that would give you chills from head to toe to think of all the possibilities, the what ifs, the time spent, all this access he had. My goodness. Rose, this is not just, again, innocent until proven guilty, but what they're suggesting here is someone who's not just your average criminal, he's not okay. Like he could snap.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: Whose mom and sister called 911 and said he threatened to chop them up. He's now in a classroom.
00:13:56
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:13:56
Speaker 2: Council member, city council member, Joanna Areola from Queens wrote, uh, said it really makes you wonder who this city is allowing around our children. This is someone that the NYPD and our military both found mentally unfit for service, but somehow the DOE thought he would be okay in a classroom. Something went very wrong in the hiring process here, and this city owes parents an explanation. How many other Syed Mohassibs are sitting with our students right now?
00:14:25
Speaker 1: That is the best statement to sum up this story and what has to happen next. You have to ask that question, Robes. It almost is a headline that an online media outlet would write for clickbait. How many other Killers are sitting with our students right now. But that is the question that needs to be asked.
00:14:48
Speaker 2: That's a fair question to ask, given all that we know now. I mean, that's just what you have to come to, and it has to be explained that bluntly, because that is what we're looking at. And there was a joint statement, three local lawmakers put this together. Yeah, her murderer was evidently a mentally disturbed man with no criminal record, but... who was an ex-NYPD officer and an ex-Marine 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. This last revelation 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.
00:15:32
Speaker 1: I fully support a full investigation. We have a kid in a New York City school.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. This is just beyond disturbing. And we've seen, like we're watching the local news reports and they're describing people who knew him and saying that kids were saying he was creepy. This is somebody who people who other kids even noticed had words to describe him. That reads, when children tell you things, believe them. And I've always told my daughters this, when you get bad energy from someone, trust it. I mean, that's scary to think you have to say that about educators and in your child's classroom. But yes, we need to empower our kids to recognize their spidey sense, to trust it.
00:16:13
Speaker 1: And your kid, the girls take you up on it to this day. And they hold on to it for years. It never goes away.
00:16:18
Speaker 2: They do.
00:16:18
Speaker 1: Their initial ick about somebody, it stays.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: Yes. Well, because, and look, at a certain point now, if you can't trust people to put trustworthy people around your children, you have to give your children some sense of empowerment.
00:16:32
Speaker 1: Rose, we're not talking about my child's teacher, I don't know, stole shoes from a Macy's when they were 17. Okay. We are talking about a murderer in the classroom.
00:16:47
Speaker 2: An unprovoked murderer. Like this poor woman was minding her own business a half a mile from home, you know, about to meet back up with her parents. She was no threat. So yes, that is so deeply disturbing. It wasn't even a crime of passion or there was some Like, not that you can justify any kind of murder, but this was the vilest of any kind of murder you can imagine because it was unprovoked, a random act of violence. This is as scary as it gets.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: And vicious.
00:17:15
Speaker 2: Vicious.
00:17:17
Speaker 1: This story, Robeson's going to have legs, and I think this is going to be going for a little bit, not just what happens in court with the criminal proceedings, but what is going to happen in this city and who is going to answer how this guy ended up in that. Classroom. Appreciate you as always spending some time with us. I'm TJ. For my dear Amy Robach, we'll talk to you all soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, November 9th, and a week-long manhunt is over. Police caught the man that they say attacked a jogger, randomly killing her. The manhunt is over. I guess they were looking in the wrong spot. Where they needed to be looking for this guy? A New York City classroom. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. It was hard to imagine, given the initial crime, how this story could get This is some really terrifying stuff.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: It's very terrifying because the man, yes, who has been arrested for stabbing a 28-year-old woman in the neck multiple times while she was jogging, yes, was a current teacher's aide in a New York City elementary school in And before that, he was a police officer and also had a stint in the Marines. This is a dude who was rejected from two major establishments.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: Here it is.
00:01:07
Speaker 2: Set up to protect citizens.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Here it is.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: And after he was rejected for mental health concerns, was allowed to be. Be a part of the educational process of young, impressionable children.
00:01:21
Speaker 1: This is why now this story is a much bigger story, a more appalling story. Yes, someone that the NYPD and the Marines deemed psychologically unfit to be a part of the force and of the military. Some kind of way, babe. We'll take you and come teach our kids. Rose, somebody is going to have to answer this one. I don't know. Do you not look at to this type of background? Is there no way before hiring someone to put them in the classroom? you could get your hands on a personnel file should you know that someone was rejected by two different entities for psychological reasons?
00:02:02
Speaker 2: And the answer, obviously, is yes.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Can you do it?
00:02:06
Speaker 2: A resounding yes.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: Legally, can you? I don't know the rules on this stuff.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Well, look, wasn't he discharged from the military? He was. From the Marines?
00:02:13
Speaker 1: He was.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: And yes, mental health issues absolutely need to be taken into consideration if they are the reason behind someone's either rejection or firing. That has to be known before you are then put in a place of trust within a community with your most precious resource, your children. There's no one or nothing more valuable in any person's life than the safety of their child, period, end of story.
00:02:43
Speaker 1: Maybe they will give us answers to why, and they're going to have to give us an answer as to why their hands were tied and weren't able to get his back. They are looking for a way to explain that to us all, because they're going to have to rope. What we're potentially talking about, a guy who was capable of stabbing a random woman in the neck twice as she was out for a run, is in the classroom with children.
00:03:06
Speaker 2: That is so unbelievably frightening. Look, we've talked about this. I think anyone can imagine, no matter where you live in this country or in the world, if there was a knife-wielding monster on the loose that had attacked... an unsuspecting, innocent young woman just out for a run a half a mile away from home, we were concerned. We were having conversations with our daughter, specifically my older one, who is a runner in Brooklyn. So yes, this was concerning, but also with your 13-year-old who was walking to and from school just knowing this person was on the run, never suspecting in any of our wildest imaginations that this person was hiding in plain sight in a New York City classroom.
00:03:49
Speaker 1: What the... You said it about Sabine. We're warning her about her surroundings everywhere. And I tell her to let me know when she gets to school so I know she's safe. You're telling me the warning I should have been giving Sabine. Watch out for some of those weird teachers. Anybody acting strange? No, of course I shouldn't be thinking about that. I can't wait to hear how they answer this one. Because Robes, it got through the cracks, certainly. Are they really going to come out and say... Law prevents us. It was his medical background. Are they going to come out and say that?
00:04:25
Speaker 2: If that is the case, and we have to wait and see if that is possibly something they could even use as a defense. If that's the case, then laws need to be changed because this is so unacceptable to think that people who have diagnosed and documented mental health issues that have risen to a level that you are unfit to be a police officer and unfit to be a Marine, 100% that should immediately disqualify you from working in any way, shape, or form with children.
00:05:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if much else. I don't know. Maybe we're missing something. Well, more details will come out. But we did get this over the weekend that Syed Mohassib is the name. He worked as a teacher's aide. They know the school, a particular one, public school in Brooklyn. Now, before that, 2022, he applied, worked for the NYPD, but he only went full time there for a month. He went through the training academy. But after a month, He asked for leave because he wanted to go to the Marines. He went and joined the Marines, was gone from the Marines in a month's time because he couldn't pass a psychological test with them. Their statement about him comes and says, Mohasib's premature discharge is indicative that his service was incongruent with Marine Corps expectations today. and standards. That's the statement they put out. So Robes, he gets discharged from the Marines, tries to go back to the NYPD. They recommend he goes to Bellevue for a mental evaluation, and he's never accepted back on the force. That's the guy who somehow, someway, ended up in classrooms.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yes, and add to that disturbing resume that I'm sure he was not forthcoming about when he applied to become a worker of the Department of Education. But in 2024, just two years ago, his own mother and his sister called 911 because they told police that he threatened to, quote, chop them up. How was none of this found, determined? Are there no background checks to workers of the Department of Education?
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Does that show up? Does that kind of stuff, a 911 call, a report, a psych evaluation, I don't know, babe, what they are.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: It didn't take long for reporters to find this all out.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: Don't we have these stories pop up every once in a while? And I do think, babe, it's educators, I think it's police officers, and I think it's nurses that for some reason their employment history or their disciplinary history doesn't follow them as they go to new places. And you have a lot of people who keep slipping through the cracks because their background from another place, the new place, they never find out what happened there. We've seen these stories.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Yes, we've seen this. We've seen this actually, but usually I would argue the stories I've done and you and I have both done over the years, priests, medical professionals, teachers, police officers, this usually ends up happening when you change states. Like there is something about crossing state lines and going to another state that somehow you can evade whatever history you've left behind in another state or at least there's an incentive for them to typically fire you without prejudice or not leave a stain on your record. if you agree to leave and leave the state. So we're just pushing one state's problem onto another one. Yes, we've recovered that. I've never seen this happen where it's actually all within New York, the NYPD. I don't know where he joined the Marines, but I'm assuming it's here locally. And then, I don't know, this is just, if there is some sort of vacuum in which this can occur, it needs to be changed immediately.
00:08:18
Speaker 1: But is it because they're not, right? Those are three different areas. Education, military, police. Are the police looking at the background of a guy based on his police background? Is the military looking at something different? Does the Department of Education have any reason to go look and try to find out if somebody used to work for the NYPD? Don't they just want to see his employment background as it relates to education?
00:08:42
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:08:43
Speaker 1: Did he put NYPD or the Marines on his resume?
00:08:45
Speaker 2: He would have to, though, because there would be big gaps in his resume. resume, unless he just said, I was staying at home helping, like, what would you even say? And how would that be a good thing to be that young and have big gaps on your work resume?
00:08:59
Speaker 1: So even as we, you can tell, Robes, you and I are even, as we're talking about it, going, what the hell, what the hell, what the hell? So they're trying to figure this out, how exactly this happened. The Department of Education, they put this statement out, short and to the point, I guess, but a little head scratching it in parts. saying that the safety of our students is our very top priority. We have suspended this individual and will move to terminate employment pending the outcome of the arrest. Okay. I mean, I guess everybody has a right to the trial, fair trial.
00:09:33
Speaker 2: I guess there are strict rules. We've done stories on this as well in terms of what it takes to fire a teacher or anyone working with the Department of Education. It actually is the teacher's union. It's very powerful. And so they have some pretty stringent rules in place before you can officially fire someone. So, yes, that is a carefully worded statement by the Department of Education here in New York.
00:09:55
Speaker 1: We did get more details. Robes, they told us when this happened, October 30th. It was a Friday night, right, when she was killed. And immediately police said the area where she was running did not have cameras. So they couldn't see the actual attack or see a suspect. But we were getting more details after this individual has been arrested. Robes, they were able to piece things together from... videos in other places. This was interesting how they put it together.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: They were. The cameras ended up pointing them in the right direction. They say video surveillance depicted the defendant walking into the area of the running path before the incident and then running away. After the incident. So that was pretty clear. And then they say it also depicted the defendant returning to his residence. This is amazing they could see this. And emerging 15 minutes later wearing only underwear and subsequently throwing items into a garbage chute. And then the defendant had his own statements. He's admitted to violence at least or maybe at least having a knife. He said he came down the bike path with a knife because people were going to come and kill his family. That is what he said he believed. And then he said he just sat down on a bridge and, quote, became covered in blood. But he said he didn't stab anyone. Clearly, this is someone making those types of statements who isn't mentally making any sense.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: It's not quite right. So, okay, let's say that is the case. How is this person Working in an elementary school. Now, we should say, the best I can put together, they describe it as a teacher's aide, a substitute teacher's aide at this school. How often that person is in that school, don't know. But the authorities have said between the murder and his arrest.
00:11:46
Speaker 2: He went to work. Yeah. Let that sink in.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: That sink in.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: Frightening.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: So stay here. We'll tell you what local officials are now saying. And they are pissed and want to find out how this guy ended up in a New York City classroom.
00:12:15
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Look, the good news is there has been arrest in that murder of a Brooklyn jogger, 28-year-old Katie Suarez out for a run, stabbed twice in the neck. The bad news is who police have arrested. A teacher's aide who was working at PS200 in Brooklyn in a classroom full of children, despite the fact that he was rejected from the Marines and the police, the NYPD, because of mental health issues. So yes, there is A lot of finger pointing and there are a lot of questions and a tremendous amount of criticism. First, we'll give some of the voices that are chiming in. State Senator Stephen Chan said, that is an atrocity on its own. I can't believe that our children and our other teachers and staff members were actually in danger all this time.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: That's one way to put it. How do they feel today? Oh my goodness, the parents. Can you imagine if you're the parent of one of those kids?
00:13:18
Speaker 2: No.
00:13:19
Speaker 1: Or the teacher.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Oh, man. Oh, man.
00:13:24
Speaker 1: Rose, that would give you chills from head to toe to think of all the possibilities, the what ifs, the time spent, all this access he had. My goodness. Rose, this is not just, again, innocent until proven guilty, but what they're suggesting here is someone who's not just your average criminal, he's not okay. Like he could snap.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: Whose mom and sister called 911 and said he threatened to chop them up. He's now in a classroom.
00:13:56
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:13:56
Speaker 2: Council member, city council member, Joanna Areola from Queens wrote, uh, said it really makes you wonder who this city is allowing around our children. This is someone that the NYPD and our military both found mentally unfit for service, but somehow the DOE thought he would be okay in a classroom. Something went very wrong in the hiring process here, and this city owes parents an explanation. How many other Syed Mohassibs are sitting with our students right now?
00:14:25
Speaker 1: That is the best statement to sum up this story and what has to happen next. You have to ask that question, Robes. It almost is a headline that an online media outlet would write for clickbait. How many other Killers are sitting with our students right now. But that is the question that needs to be asked.
00:14:48
Speaker 2: That's a fair question to ask, given all that we know now. I mean, that's just what you have to come to, and it has to be explained that bluntly, because that is what we're looking at. And there was a joint statement, three local lawmakers put this together. Yeah, her murderer was evidently a mentally disturbed man with no criminal record, but... who was an ex-NYPD officer and an ex-Marine 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. This last revelation 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.
00:15:32
Speaker 1: I fully support a full investigation. We have a kid in a New York City school.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. This is just beyond disturbing. And we've seen, like we're watching the local news reports and they're describing people who knew him and saying that kids were saying he was creepy. This is somebody who people who other kids even noticed had words to describe him. That reads, when children tell you things, believe them. And I've always told my daughters this, when you get bad energy from someone, trust it. I mean, that's scary to think you have to say that about educators and in your child's classroom. But yes, we need to empower our kids to recognize their spidey sense, to trust it.
00:16:13
Speaker 1: And your kid, the girls take you up on it to this day. And they hold on to it for years. It never goes away.
00:16:18
Speaker 2: They do.
00:16:18
Speaker 1: Their initial ick about somebody, it stays.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: Yes. Well, because, and look, at a certain point now, if you can't trust people to put trustworthy people around your children, you have to give your children some sense of empowerment.
00:16:32
Speaker 1: Rose, we're not talking about my child's teacher, I don't know, stole shoes from a Macy's when they were 17. Okay. We are talking about a murderer in the classroom.
00:16:47
Speaker 2: An unprovoked murderer. Like this poor woman was minding her own business a half a mile from home, you know, about to meet back up with her parents. She was no threat. So yes, that is so deeply disturbing. It wasn't even a crime of passion or there was some Like, not that you can justify any kind of murder, but this was the vilest of any kind of murder you can imagine because it was unprovoked, a random act of violence. This is as scary as it gets.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: And vicious.
00:17:15
Speaker 2: Vicious.
00:17:17
Speaker 1: This story, Robeson's going to have legs, and I think this is going to be going for a little bit, not just what happens in court with the criminal proceedings, but what is going to happen in this city and who is going to answer how this guy ended up in that. Classroom. Appreciate you as always spending some time with us. I'm TJ. For my dear Amy Robach, we'll talk to you all soon.