A 27-year-old man who was once briefly an NYPD officer and later worked as a school paraprofessional has been arrested and charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of Brooklyn jogger Katie Suarez, police said Saturday, nine days after the attack that shocked the city's running community.

Sayed Mohassib was taken into custody Saturday and is facing murder charges in Suarez's death, according to amNY. Two law enforcement sources told NBC New York that Mohassib told investigators he had been walking along the Belt Parkway with a knife on the night of the attack, that he "blacked out," and that he later woke up covered in blood.

Suarez, 28, was stabbed at least twice in the neck on Oct. 30 while jogging alone along the Shore Parkway Greenway in Bath Beach, a stretch of waterfront path near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. She had been on her way to meet her parents when she failed to show up; her father found her along the path. She died of her injuries days later, and her mother, Yasira Suarez, confirmed the death to reporters. Police had described the attack as random.

Garbage bags and a barbershop

Investigators said surveillance cameras near the path captured a man pacing back and forth in the area around the time of the attack. That footage led detectives to a nearby barbershop, where they obtained an identification. Separate surveillance near Mohassib's home allegedly showed him dumping bags of garbage the night Suarez was stabbed; the NYPD subsequently searched a sanitation barge for evidence from trash collected in the area days earlier.

According to the sources, Mohassib had previously served briefly in the military and as an NYPD officer before being dismissed from both and deemed psychologically unfit for duty. He had gone on to work as a school paraprofessional and reportedly returned to work after the killing.

KATIE DID NOT DESERVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS

— Bishop Erick Salgado, who organized a vigil for Suarez

The case drew comparisons to the 2016 killing of Karina Vetrano, another jogger murdered along a remote waterfront path in Queens; her attacker wasn't arrested for roughly six months. Phil Vetrano, Karina's father, offered support to the Suarez family this week and urged anyone with information to come forward.

Suarez's death prompted local elected officials to demand new lighting, security cameras and additional police patrols along the Belt Parkway's waterfront paths, which investigators have noted are only lightly covered by surveillance. The NYPD had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest before Mohassib was identified.

Anyone with additional information is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.