Officials renew calls for safety upgrades along Shore Parkway Promenade after Katie Suarez killing

Years before 28-year-old Katie Suarez was found lying on a bike path along the Shore Parkway promenade, residents who frequent the area and live nearby say safety was already a big concern. For about a mile stretch between this bridge and Caesars Bay, including where Katie was killed, it is completely dark. Our neighbors have been asking for better lighting on this promenade. It was about 8 p.m. at night when the jogger was found stabbed in the neck multiple times. Councilwoman Kayla Santosuoso and State Senator Andrew Bernardes say they're calling on the state and the city's DOT to make the long overdue changes to this promenade, which is already scheduled for $50 million renovations in the coming years. We can increase lighting on the Belt Parkway. Add lighting to the still-to-be-completed 17th Avenue pedestrian bridge. We can install solar-powered lights. You have opportunities to be able to build this infrastructure. It should not be this difficult. And to just say we can't do it because we haven't done it before seems to me like a cop-out of an answer. When reports of Katie Suarez's fatal stabbing first aired, there were questions about why she may have been out in the dark alone. But today, leaders emphasizing that the right to be safe on this promenade is a right that belongs to everyone, no matter the time of day. We knew that Katie could have been any one of us. And as a runner, she was one of us. So even as a grand jury now moves to indict Syed Mohassib on a top count of second degree murder, saving the lives of others is what this community says Katie Suarez's memory will mean to them. Morgan Scott, News 12.