Brooklyn will say goodbye to Katie Suarez this week as prosecutors continue building their case against the man accused of killing the beloved jogger. Her parents were among the witnesses who appeared before a grand jury Monday.
Suarez, a well-liked bank teller and the daughter of a longtime city bus driver, will be remembered during a wake scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Cusimano & Russo Funeral Home, 2005 W. Sixth St. in Brooklyn, according to her online obituary.
Her funeral Mass is set for 11:45 a.m. Thursday at St. Simon & Judge Roman Catholic Church, located at 185 Van Sicklen St. She will be laid to rest at Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery.
The 28-year-old Brooklyn College graduate’s funeral arrangements became public as her parents and brother gave testimony to a grand jury Monday morning before returning home with an NYPD escort, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Suarez’s mother had met her outside her Gravesend TD Bank workplace on the evening of Oct. 30. She watched her daughter head into a nearby park for her customary run, a routine that usually ended with Suarez rejoining her parents after exercising.
Her father later arrived at the park, and the couple waited for their daughter to finish. Concern grew when they could no longer contact her.
The two then searched separately. Suarez’s father eventually found her gravely wounded along a path.
“She was a darling girl with a heart full of kindness and a twinkle of fun in her eye,” high-school friend Lauren Alzos wrote in an online tribute. “I’m so sorry her life was taken. To her family, may God grant you peace eventually.”
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Suarez’s father, Nery Suarez, has driven buses from the Jackie Gleason Depot for 23 years, according to a statement from Transport Workers Union Local 100.
Gary Rosario, vice president of TWU Local 100’s TA Surface division, offered condolences to the family:
“As a father, I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child,” TWU Local 100 President TA Surface Gary Rosario said in a statement. “Please know that you are not alone. We stand with you, we care about you, and we are here for you during this heartbreaking time.”
Police arrested Sayed Mohassib, a 27-year-old former NYPD officer who worked as a city schools paraprofessional, and charged him with second-degree murder in what investigators described as a seemingly random attack.
Mohassib served with the NYPD for roughly six weeks before leaving to join the US Marine Corps. He was rejected by the military over concerns about his mental health, and the NYPD later declined to reinstate him.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday that the city would investigate how the troubled former officer was hired by the school system.
Mohassib is being held without bail at Rikers Island and is scheduled to appear in Manhattan court Tuesday.
