MIT graduate student is a ‘person of interest’ in murder of Yale graduate student, New Haven police say
New Haven police are looking for an MIT graduate student as a “person of interest” in their investigation into the murder of a Yale graduate student this past Saturday, though police say he’s not currently a suspect.
Authorities are searching for Qinxuan Pan, 29, who police say was allegedly in possession of a stolen vehicle in the area when Yale student Kevin Jiang, 26, was shot and killed.
Pan came into contact with North Haven Police Department “soon after” the homicide, New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said during a Wednesday news conference, adding that “extreme caution should be used if you come in contact with this individual” and that the public should view Pan as “armed and dangerous.”
Jiang, a second-year master’s student at the Yale School of the Environment, was killed Saturday roughly one mile away from Yale’s main campus. New Haven Police responded shortly after 8:30 p.m. to reports of multiple gunshots and a person shot. Witnesses had seen “a shiny new black vehicle flee the scene,” according to a Yale Police Department news release.
The New Haven police chief did not comment on whether any motive could be established, whether the two knew each other, and whether it was definitively Pan who had been involved in the car accident with Jiang that preceded the homicide.
There are currently two arrest warrants out for Pan: one for stealing a vehicle out of Massachusetts, and one for possession of a stolen vehicle in North Haven, Reyes explained. The FBI, along with other federal partners including the US Marshals, ATF, and DEA, are assisting in the investigation.
Pan is not currently believed to be in Connecticut, but authorities are not completely ruling it out, Reyes said.
“We do not feel that there is a prevailing threat to the community, and we’re hoping to be able to bring the person responsible for this incident — for the homicide, this senseless crime — to justice very soon,” he said.
